The macroeconomist view is that the red line shows price increases, month-to-month, are returning to pre-COVID levels. However, what Trump is selling to consumers dismisses that information because he notes the prices are higher than in his glory days before COVID. Instead, we have a booming economy, and consumers binge buy as they make up for pent-up demand after the near COVID-19 depression.
Consumers feel and see for themselves; telling them the data says they are blind is a political loser. Continuing with that same message, Biden is also losing the message war. One very red flag that Biden is losing the propaganda war is that over 63% of voters think their own personal finances are good and more think excelle,t However, everyone else is suffering from a "bad" economy. What Biden needs to do is put whatever in terms to make people aware of this and ask the question and answer why and what he did to make you, an individual, feel better. https://www.axios.com/2024/01/17/americans-are-actually-pretty-happy-with-their-finances
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/13/voter-perceptions-economy/
Here are some possible political winners. They include reporting the good news about actually what is happening to customers buying retail instead of just handwringing, hitting Trump for policies that would raise consumer prices, and lying about his power to lower prices. There are also ways for consumers to fight greedflation by themselves.
1) Biden's message must match what consumers feel and see, and he can. He must change the narrative from empathy hang-wringing to the message that actual price inflation is nearly back to what rates were in 2018.. The data reflects that greedflation is abating. All consumers hear is how high prices have been since their glory days before COVID-19 but inflation was already taking place at the beginning of 2018. Then inflation went sky-high right after COVID. It is back to inflation rates pre-COVID times. We would have to be in a deep recession if prices were to crash back to pre-COVID that much today.
Biden's social media gurus need to start noticing price decreases from post-COVID high. and publicize the good news. What needs to be done is to find examples of how prices have decreased since COVID. particularly for the urban wage owners. Point out that more items have price reduction stickers than ever before.. That is what consumers see." My, look at the sales shelf stickers" Wow, last week's eggs were x, but I got some on sale or lower than last week's " "I saw reduced prices stickers all over the shelves. " That is the best indication that greedflation is abating. Products have been overpriced, and now competitors are forcing prices down. Another good sign is that the free market system is still alive as retailers realize there is a business opportunity to compete with lower prices. Update: 5/20'24 https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/target-reduces-prices-5000-products-high-inflation-persists Many of the items are in the grocery department. Look for the yellow tags.That is the free market system at work. It is a slow process and it is still a work in progress.
2) Trump is conning you to think he can reduce prices to pre-COVID days. He is pulling consumers' legs, and many are falling for it. Is he telling you he can set prices? Of course, he can't.. So how can he deliver on that promise, prices as they were before COVID? He can't, and neither can Biden. A government setting prices only happens in a communist country with central planning. We live in a free market. The silver lining with even better employment records in our recent history and before COVID, too: At least, too, many more Americans have a job, better than at any time in our history and even before COVID. Those jobs now pay more per hour, " so we can still pay for what we need and feel secure about jobs out there if what I am doing goes south."
3) Trump himself would be an inflation causation. Here is how Trump would make prices go up with his plans. He surely caters to oil oligarchs to get campaign donations who love to see that price per barrel soar, and he threatens to raise tariff prices on all imports. He proposes to take away the only power to control inflation, our central bank, the Federal Reserve. As president, he has no power to curb inflation. also, does he want to destroy the only tool out there? Sure high interest rates contribute to increased prices, but without the Fed to put the break on inflation to slow down consumer demands, it would be worse. In fact, inflation would be Katy bar the door out of control. So far, our interest rates and inflation are among the lowest in the industrialized world. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1317878/inflation-rate-interest-rate-by-country/ If it ain't very broke, don't very well break it. Trump's promises would do just that. Increase inflation.
I have noticed that the price of clothing is not much higher than before COVID. I also see that fresh produce in the winter is still affordable. Now imagine all the produce you buy that comes in from Mexico and South America in the winter you buy and then imagine what Trump would do by adding a 10% duty on that as he proposes. I look at my labels on clothing for country of origin, and, wow, it is mostly made in China, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. Much furniture is also imported. So now Trump wants to add 10% to every import, which will simply be passed on to me for the importer to raise their prices to keep up their profit margins? Consumers can just cough that up because no matter how much imports cost it still would be cheaper than such labor-intensive manufactured products made in the USA. Trump's immigration platform is to send millions of migrants to camps and then expel them from the US. If you think the cost of domestic produce and prep of processed foods sold at the grocery store and eating at your favorite restaurant will be cheaper with Trump's immigration plans, you need a grip on reality. Migrants are a big part of the labor force in these sectors.
4) Here is how consumers themselves can revolt against greedflation. Buy cheaper. Help those greedy ones lose sales and look for cheaper generic and store brands. The family for which I shop is three adults. My monthly grocery budget has not changed since it was before COVID because I have shifted to cheaper meat cuts, more pork, more chicken...and I buy store brands instead of advertised brands. I maintain my store affinity member number to take advantage of sale prices. Nationally advertised brands have high advertising overhead, and you pay for it. Duh. The quality of these grocery store brands is just as good or better than the nationally advertised ones. I buy products where shelf price stickers point to sales and price reductions, and there are many more of them than I have ever seen. That is a visual video that says something, reporters. The free market is working; competition is why there are so many price reductions on the shelf stickers/tags. So stop buying the more expensive can of the same kind of product and punish the greedy. Be wise to the greedy tricks of less product in new or smaller boxes or the same old price you remember and just say no. Find another brand at a lower cost per ounce or pound instead.
________________________________________________________________
Felicia Muftic's resume points to a career of advocacy for consumers. Her first consumer project was to prove Denver's poorer consumers paid more at grocery stores by launching volunteers to survey and collect the data, and then she published it. She is the author of the Colorado Consumer Handbook and has served as a consumer representative on many boards and commissions. She is a former white-collar crime and consumer protection unit director in Denver's district attorney's office. She has served as a president of the board and government relations staff of the local consumer credit counseling nonprofit agency.
Data:
Monthly increases of prices for urban workers: it was on the increase in 2018, 3.2 % rate, and back down to lower rates of increase is back to more similar rates of increase, though up a bit from 2.9 to.3.5 in 2024 first quarter. The huge spike was in the post-COVID era. https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm
