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With inflation at its highest in four decades, the United States entered a period of high interest rates and low growth, albeit with strong employment numbers and resilient consumer spending. The economy, more than ever, has been the center of the debate in the campaign for the mid-term elections that take place this November 8.
Neither boom nor bust, the US economy – inflation in particular – has become the main focus of the US midterm elections. And in a key element for the decision of the voters.
Household cash in circulation, near record levels, is being used to go to restaurants and buy new cars; job offers are the order of the day and the net worth of its inhabitants is 30% higher than before the pandemic.
But it is also true that inflation is at its highest level in four decades, that the Central Bank’s reference rates jumped from between 0% and 0.25% to between 3.75% and 4% in less than a year, and that Gasoline prices, although down, remain historically high.
The economy is generally expected to grow in 2022, albeit slowly, after concerns earlier in the year that it had started to contract and was headed dangerously into a recession.
With the above in mind, this Tuesday’s mid-term elections will be definitive for Democratic President Joe Biden, either because he can keep the majority he has in Congress or because he becomes controlled by the Republicans, hindering the legislative path of his liberal schedule.
Who to blame for the situation?
Republicans have made the economy their number one workhorse, accusing Joe Biden and the Democrats of fueling inflation with huge aid packages and ignoring the financial plight of American families facing skyrocketing housing prices. energy and food.
“If you think about the problems that we face as a country, you see inflation at its highest level in 40 years, you see the open border, you see the energy problems that we have. All those problems did not materialize out of nowhere. They have all been created by Biden’s own policies. He is causing this with the trillions of dollar loans that triggered inflation,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a campaign speech in Hialeah on Monday, November 7.
For his part, the head of state, who does not usually refer directly to inflation in his campaign speeches, has defended his policies to contain it.
“By the way, (Vladimir) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine caused gasoline prices to skyrocket around the world. But because of the measures we’ve taken, they’re going down,” Biden defended at a campaign rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week, trying to balance voter perceptions.
Indeed, after hitting a record $5 a gallon last summer, the average price for regular gasoline in the country has fallen to $3.8, but it’s still much higher than the $2.53 they paid. car owners in the week before Biden takes office in January 2021.
Meanwhile, food prices rose at an annual rate of 11% as of September, the fastest monthly pace since February 1979, when Jimmy Carter was in the White House.
Mid-term elections have historically been considered a kind of referendum on the government of the day. This time, the economy will be more prominent than ever in the minds of voters and has become the golden opportunity for the Republican opposition to make political gains from a bleak outlook.
With Reuters and AP
