The sky and the Dow Jones are falling, warn the grim headlines. According to Joe Biden and his media cheering section, our country is in the worst economic shape since the 1930s Great Depression bread lines.
The narrative is that President Donald Trump inherited a great recovery from his predecessor President Barack Obama and his surrogate, Joe Biden.
Never mind the economy, though. It’s all about the pandemic. We have to keep everything shut tight. President Trump’s opponents, aided and abetted by a hostile press, are eager to keep the narrative on the pandemic front and center.
Investors listen, of course. When President Trump shut down the negotiations with Democrats over the economic stimulus package, the Dow experienced a kneejerk dip of about 500 points, only to see an immediate rebound when the President proposed a targeted, piecemeal approach to the stimulus package.
Once again, President Trump showed everyone how smart business people negotiate. Democrats want another pork-infested multi-trillion-dollar package. The President is willing to compromise with new stimulus checks for everyone and selective assistance for laid off workers.
In the meantime, the country has experienced the best job creation numbers since the Reagan era — with 661,000 added in September. So, the country is continuing to experience a historically dynamic economic recovery, which doesn’t fit the gloomy narrative.
Other indicators are a sizzling hot housing market. The National Association of Realtors reported a record high in pending real estate sales, with sharp gains in both new and existing homes. Home sales, in turn, are major indicators of consumer confidence. They are economic commitments people make not out of fear, but when they see opportunity.
The bump in confidence and the housing boom, as well as a record five straight months of job gains, provide an irresistible momentum. Coupled with the employment bounce back, the economic engine that was partially halted with the coronavirus surge could be just what President Trump needs to overcome the gloom and negativity of the Democrat narrative.
So, what are the journalists and pundits missing? Operating in the isolation of their coastal media bubbles, they appear to have overlooked something important: It is a story of economic hope and comeback in flyover country and the recognition that pocketbook issues are what drive voting decisions.
The upcoming election will get to the basics: Will voters believe Joe Biden’s charges that the areas of the economy that the pandemic crippled were truly representative of President Trump’s record? Or will the voters take an honest look at the data and conclude the opposite? To wit:
- Before the pandemic, under President Trump there were record highs in median income.
- There were near record lows in poverty rates and generational unemployment.
- Wages grew fastest for groups that have historically lagged behind — i.e., African American and Hispanics
And the data keeps rolling in. The economy has regained its previous vibrancy. The experts didn’t see this coming. Democrats know it’s happening and are desperate to keep everything locked down until after the election.
So, once again, it’s the economy. We’re on the comeback. The outcome of the upcoming election will determine who gets the credit and what narrative will survive and which one is just stupid.
