Voters Hold a Grim Outlook on Biden’s Economy

According to a recent poll, 72% of Americans believe the economy will get worse or plateau under the Biden administration. We experienced a 40-year peak in inflation in 2021, and 40% of respondents say they believe their financial outlook will worsen over the remainder of 2022. Just 25% said they believe things will improve and 33% said they expect no change.

This is a grim outlook, and as the COVID handouts are coming to a close, and the artificial boost from record money printing from the FED is wearing off. Interestingly, that 40% who claim things will get better are democrats who still approve of Joe Biden.

Economic growth slowed in January due to high prices, supply chain bottlenecks, labor shortages, and COVID mandates, according to Breitbart News, who writes:

“The IHS Markit flash composite purchasing managers index fell to 50.8 in January from 57.0, shorting expectations and signaling a period of nearly zero economic growth. Economists had predicted a reading of 56.7.”

Jobs and the economy are leading issues for voting Americans, who are much more concerned about these issues than they are about the coronavirus. Because Biden’s coronavirus policies are directly responsible for the economic downturn, trust in the administration even among Democrat voters is waning. Consequently, Biden’s approval rating remains as an abysmal 33% across all voting demographics.

At the same time, the administration and the democrat establishment as a whole appear to be steering the nation’s attention away from the failing COVID narrative in favor of a new cold war with Russia. After the roundly disproved Russian conspiracy theory pushed by democrats claiming that Donald Trump was a Russian asset, Americans are widely opposed to Biden’s Russian sanctions.

The sanctions are hurting Russians. With soaring gas prices in Russia, the entire nation is feeling the pressure. According to Newsmax, the average cost to fill a 12-gallon gas tank rose by over 20% since the country’s government invaded Ukraine.

Economics professor, David Feldman from the College of William & Mary commented on the sanctions, claiming that the impacts would be felt throughout the Russian economy. He said, “The effects will ripple through really fast. Anything that’s imported is going to see the local cost in currency surge. The only way to stop it will be heavy subsidization.”

Last week, former vice president Joe Biden commented n the sanctions, saying, “This is going to impose severe costs on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time. We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”

Interestingly, Biden’s willingness to hurt Russian citizens over the actions of their government is not helping the Biden administration’s voter approval rating. As more and more Americans become politically aware, arguably since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, they do not see citizens of a country as responsible for the actions of their government to the degree that they once did. This is especially true of China, which appears to be funding much of the Russian invasion. Americans do not blame the Chinese people, they blame the Chinese government, a sentiment that has been strengthened with recent confirmations about the Chinese laboratory origins of the coronavirus.

Finally, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has said that there may be unintended consequences of the Russian sanctions and that these consequences should be avoided. Dimon commented that the “SWIFT expulsion,” a flash freezing of Russian central bank assets is an unnecessarily harsh action that is likely to backfire.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Dimon said, “There are many possible workarounds for SWIFT, so there are different tools we can use for different purposes. The banks are conversing with the government, therefore everyone understands the issues, not because they are for or against any particular thing.”

He went on to ask, what countries are going to be hurt and what kinds of workarounds are going to be used? He suggested that the sanctions would hurt those who tend to play by the rules more than they would hurt those who skirt regulations and best practices for more expedient gains.

Dimon’s comments corroborate a growing sentiment that the hostility against Russia will hurt many millions of people who have nothing to do with the conflict.