THE GOP’S VIEW OF THE 2021 CHRISTMAS SEASON IS ALL “BAD NEWS”

 

…New York’s Sac’s Fifth Avenue is celebrating a serious increase over the 2020 Christmas Season sales

 

From Fox News: The U.S Economy is “doom and gloom”

 

OK, lets look at the American Christmas Season for 2021:

Holiday retail sales were the highest ever.  They jumped 8.5% from last year.  They were nearly 11% from pre-pandemic 2019, as “consumers splurged throughout the season.”   This news didn’t come from some government agency.  This was what the credit card company, Mastercard, reported last Sunday.

Because of some of the decisions made by the president dealing with the nation’s sea ports and America’s truckers, the stores were well stocked. Even most package deliveries were mostly on time and inflation, though a serious concern, clearly didn’t deter American shoppers.  Oh, and even holiday motorists found the gas prices 14 cents a gallon lower than in November.  Not great, but headed in the right direction.

But what did the Republicans and the Fox Network have to say?  As expected it was all doom and gloom.

Fox News had forecasted the bluest of Christmases for months.

Also, as expected, the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, joined the other 159 House Republicans in a letter to President Biden saying his policies “will certainly ensure that this Christmas will not be merry because of a supply chain crisis and inflation.”

Chairman Jim Banks of the House Republican Study Committee, citing those same reasons as he wrote to his colleagues: “Our job as Republicans is to explain to the American people what the grinches at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave did to ruin Christmas.”

Fox News’ Sean Hannity, actually told its viewers that: “Christmas presents for your kids may not arrive on time or even at all”, and Fox’s Laura Ingraham said that the president is: “the Biden Who Stole Christmas.  Also that Biden is: “facing a nightmare come Christmastime.”  Jesse Watters said that the: “gifts are going to cost a fortune, and that’s even if you’re lucky enough to snag anything.” 

Even the far right, Breitbart News referred to a Trump campaign adviser’s forecast for “a frankly miserable Christmas … the Biden Blue Christmas,” and the right wing Newsmax forecast: “Biden’s Blue Christmas: Shortages, Frustration, Economic Malaise.”

So, did GOP leaders and Fox News acknowledge that they fearmongered in error?   Of course not!

There were only three passing mentions on Fox News of the holiday sales triumph, amid a new round of Fox doomsaying of: “it looks like things are about to get a lot worse in the new year”.

After a year of such deception, as the editorial writer, Dana Milbank wrote: “The United States is experiencing the worst economy we never had”.

Historically, the economy is going gangbusters. Yet we Americans, particularly those Republicans, are expressing a gloom not matched by the economic reality, or by their own spending.  The polls and consumer-confidence shows an economic pessimism as grim as when millions of Americans lost jobs in the pandemic shutdown. This is, in large part, because all this “disinformation has prevailed”. Political partisanship has colored the economic views.  And now, the Republicans, in addition to occupying a parallel political reality, are expanding an alternate economic universe.

“America’s economy has improved more in Joe Biden’s first 12 months than any president during the past 50 years notwithstanding the contrary media narrative contributing to dour public opinion,” this was from Matthew Winkler, the former editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News last week. 

Among the gains: The economy expanded an estimated 5.5%t in 2021 (fourth-quarter growth dramatically outpaced Europe and even China).  Unemployment plunged to 4.2%.  Record-setting U.S. stock markets (the S&P 500 is up nearly 30%), which outperformed the world.  Productivity jumped and corporate profits are the largest since 1950. The nation’s corporate debt is the lowest in 30 years and consumer credit expanded. Confidence among CEOs is the highest in 20 years. The American Rescue Plan has cut child poverty in half.  So, what’s to be unhappy about?

“The force of the American expansion is also inducing overseas companies to invest in thie U.S., betting that the growth is still accelerating and will outpace other major economies,” added the Wall Street Journal.  (Not exactly a liberal publication.)

The fly in the ointment is the inflation, which is estimated at 5.6% for the year.  That is the highest in 40 years, which is suppressing disposable income. 

This has caused real pain for consumers, particularly low-income Americans buying groceries and gas, and anybody buying a car.  But studies show that, among the lowest earners, wage-gains did outpace inflation.  Also, inflation is less than half what it was in those 40 years ago.  And, unlike then, today’s bond yields signal that investors don’t expect inflation to worsen.  Forty years ago, stagnant growth combined with inflation caused: “stagflation.”  But today, the economy is roaring.

Yet a Gallup Poll that came out last week said that “Americans’ confidence in the economy has dropped to where it was in April 2020, when nationwide shutdowns brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic plunged the nation into a recession.”  (All of this is due to that “disinformation”)

The reason is very clear. As The Post explained, Republicans in April 2020 were evenly split on whether the economy was in excellent/good condition or fair/poor. Now, despite dramatic improvements, 91% of Republicans say the economy is in fair/poor condition.

During the Fox News’ hysterical coverage of: inflation, gas prices and supply chain problems. It invoked inflation roughly twice as often as CNN and MSNBC.  Now, as The Post reported, three-quarters of Republicans say prices are the most important measure of the economy’s health (only one-quarter said this a year ago), this eclipses unemployment, personal finances and the stock market.

In today’s strange view of “truth in America”, America’s economy is just another target for lots of “fake news.”

Copyright G. Ater 2021