Bidenomics: Proposed myths & vexing facts
2024-08-01
President Biden and his supporters claim that he took an economy that was “flat on its back” in 2021 and made it “the envy of the world”. How did Biden accomplish this? He supposedly rebuilt the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up”.The data on economic conditions in the US economy over the past few years are clear. First, unemployment rates have been relatively low. However, the unemployment rate during the Covid crisis peaked at 14.8% in April 2020, and had fallen to 6.1% by the time Biden signed his America Rescue Plan (ARP) in March of 2021. Economists doubt the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus policies even when they are properly timed. The ARP supplied far too much fiscal stimulus far too late, at best. At worst, ARP delivered a dangerous increase in the US national debt,
The Money Supply Is Growing Again and the Fed Wants It that Way
2024-05-17
Money-supply growth fell year over year again in March, but March’s decline was the smallest money-supply drop recorded in sixteen months. Moreover, the money supply in March grew—month over month—by the highest rate in two years. The current trend in money-supply growth suggests a continued turnaround from more than a year of historically large contractions in the money supply. As of March, the money supply appears to be in a period of stabilization. The money supply is still flat or down on a year-over-year basis, but there is clear growth over the past several months. Money-supply growth has now been negative—year over year—for seventeen months in a row. During March 2024, the downturn continued as YOY growth in the money supply was at –2.57 percent. That’s up from February’s rate of