Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer.
The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including:
- 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.
- 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.
- 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.
Many Americans put the blame on Biden for the state of the economy, with 58% of those polled saying the economy is worsening due to mismanagement from the presidential administration.
The poll underscored people’s complicated emotions around inflation. The vast majority of respondents, 72%, indicated they think inflation is increasing. In reality, the […]
Sad, another instance where the population trusts their own experience instead of what the experts tell them to believe. The economy may be doing well for the wealthy but it’s stagnant for the middle class and downright punishing for the poor. Note on newscasts now how the Dow Jones Industrial Average is given in percentage change rather than real numbers? That’s because the elite don’t want to rub it in regarding how rich they’ve become. In the just the past ten years the DJIA has about doubled in value. If your rich enough to own a large portion of your wealth in stock your twice as wealthy. So tell me dear reader, are you twice as wealthy now as you were 10 years ago? I doubt it. This is what Biden is facing. The difference between the wealth of his friends, and those economists he socializes with and the reality of the rest of us experience. For me, I’ll trust my lived experience over what the “experts” tell me is true – every time.