So: if statistics like unemployment, market indices, CPI, GDP, etc., cannot be used - not now, not ever - to conclude that people are "doing better," what can?JKLivin wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 3:44 pmThen why aren't people doing better? Why are they still unable to afford groceries and cars and homes? Why are they still working multiple jobs? You can play numbers games all you want, but until people see a difference in their bank account and pocket book, they won't care. That is one of the main reasons why Giggles will lose and lose badly.Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 3:11 pm Thanks, Kamala and Joe!
Solid labor market fuels real GDP past pre-Covid, pre-Biden admin. growth views: report (From SeekingAlpha)
Markets have tuned into the soft-landing narrative about the U.S. economy throughout 2024, and a new report shows the economy has more than recovered from the recession blow dealt to it by the COVID pandemic, buoyed by employment at a near all-time high.
The nonpartisan Center for American Progress in a report Thursday credited bipartisan congressional work during the Trump administration and the Biden-Harris administration’s continuation of economic stimulus for pushing real Gross Domestic Product beyond growth projections made by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
CAP said “robust” employment hovering around its all-time was key in driving real (chained dollar) GDP to $23.22T in the second quarter of 2024. It highlighted the U.S. employment-to-population ratio at near its all-time high when adjusted for demographics. The 61.2% figure for September was just below the 61.49% in April 2020, as the global pandemic was unfolding.
High employment has helped bolster inflation-adjusted wage growth, leading wages to record highs, it said. Wages grew 26.3% between February 2020 and this September, faster than a 21.4% increase in consumer prices.
For Q2 2024, the CBO in January 2020 had forecast real GDP of $22.7T, and in February 2021, it projected $22.9T for Q2 this year. This year’s Q2 result from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis meant real GDP was 2.4% ahead of the CBO’s pre-COVID projection, and 1.6% ahead of the pre-Biden-Harris policy estimate.
The “economy in 2024 is stronger than experts had predicted it would be in 2024 before COVID-19 even happened. And it is stronger now than it was projected to be by 2024 at the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration,” Bobby Kogan and Brendan Duke, senior directors of federal budget policy and economic policy, respectively, at CAP, said in their report.
“Learning from mistakes made in prior recessions, Congress passed recovery legislation that prevented economic scarring and instead ensured a speedy and full recovery," they said...
What is your measuring stick, if not capable of being expressed in numbers, for when people are "doing better?"