- Government citations up six points; inflation mentions steady
- Economic Confidence Index low and unchanged at -39
- 64% say it is a good time to find a quality job in the U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More Americans name the government as the nation’s top problem in Gallup’s latest poll, which encompassed the rocky start of the 118th Congress’ term.
It annoys me when hacks generalize the US House as Congress. Congress is the House AND the Senate. And the Senate did not have any "rocky start" that was all in the House.
With high prices persisting,
And here's some woolly thinking too. If the author wants
deflation they should say so.
inflation remains the second most-cited problem (15%), and amid elevated tensions about the southern U.S. border, illegal immigration edged up three percentage points to 11%. Mentions of the economy in general fell six points, to 10%, the lowest reading in a year.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/468983/cite-gov-top-problem-inflation-ranks-second.aspx
"It's the economy stupid" unless Democrats are in charge of a strong economy. Then it's illegal immigration or boys in the girls' changing rooms, emotive nonsense to distract from what Republican ideology says is impossible: Democrats managing the economy just fine.
We were due another recession all through Trump's term. And credit where it is due, Trump did sign the legislation to support businesses and furloughed workers, running a trillion dollar deficit in the process. Democrats under Biden have wound that back, but not too suddenly, so the US did suffer a 'technical recession' but really not too bad. Unemployment in particular remained (and remains) quite low. If that was the recession for this decade, we should count ourselves very lucky!
Perhaps the greatest risk to the US economy lies overseas. A collapse in China where so much US capital is invested, could trigger a loss of solvency in their lenders (like the Great Recession, but with the equity in Chinese businesses taking the place of marginal US housing loans.) Or the Chinese might do this deliberately, all they have to do is nationalize some businesses without compensation; it would trigger a run on the many US corporations who are invested there. I don't expect they would do just for the hell of it, but if their economy is collapsing anyway they might choose "two stones to kill one bird" so they can tell the Chinese people that the US started it.
A European collapse has to be considered too. Financially, Europe and the US are intertwined. Also, Europe is the best market the US has, so if the Euro falls dramatically they won't be able to afford much from the US.
Enemies domestic might include corporations or banks. Big capital can ride the wave of a recession, to their own advantage. But honestly I believe most corporations prefer slow and steady growth, because they like predictability. Then there's Republicans, who stand to gain politically if there's a big recession between now and November 2024. But they've blocked the debt ceiling before, and they've played the Sequester card before. I don't know of anything they could try, to trash the US economy, which wouldn't get pinned on them.
