Economy
Who to believe?
Who should we believe to get an accurate view of the world?
Certainly not Mr. Biden!
My opinion, is that the media (and Presidential speeches) are very unreliable sources of information and what we should consider is the evidence.
For example, as I’m writing this, gold is again approaching record highs of selling at $2,400 per ounce. During Trump’s presidency gold was under $1,400 per ounce. That’s a huge increase of over 71%. This would indicate the USA and the World are in far, far worse shape than four years ago.
The rise in gold reflects a loss in value / trust in fiat currencies worldwide (the situation is worse in other nations!). Remember, gold doesn’t change in value, it’s the fiat currency you are trying to buy it with that changes in value.
What other evidence can we look at? Inflation and interest rates are high. This hurts the typical person (but doesn’t harm the wealthy). All the talk of a “soft landing” has turned to rumors of “no landing” and statements that interest rates are going up even more.
Grocery prices are something we can notice almost every week. Many of my normal items haven’t changed in price, but others have gone up. Friends report significant rent increases.
It seems to be very difficult to hire someone to do some work. Often when you can get someone to do work the quality is not always very good and / or the cost is rather high.
Pay rates are reported as not keeping up with inflation. Certainly mine haven’t.
The thing I notice, here in UK, is the price increases by stealth. The box of 12 pouches of wet cat food is still in the same price range - ignoring the 'special offers'... but the size of each pouch is now 85g. They used to be 100g. So the box used to be a total of 1200g but it is now 1020g, shrinking by 15%. The only way to take a bag of groceries home for roughly the same money is to sacrifice on quality or pack size. Very very gradually getting rinsed, and it never ever stops.
If anyone wants to understand economics without drifting into a stupor, read "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlit. I consider it one of the books that most profoundly affected my worldview. It is short and to the point. Readers will come away understanding the folly of economic policies that are designed to get politicians re-elected rather than actually providing a sound economic environment.