Jared Bernstein, a top White House economic advisor, called continuing questions about inflation “stale” while discussing President Biden’s economic poll numbers.
CNBC host Scott Wapner asked Bernstein about Biden continuing to receive low polling numbers on the economy despite low unemployment and steady wages. When Wapner brought up the subject of inflation, Bernstein appeared to dismiss the topic, calling the question “stale.”
“And yet the polling numbers, as we talked at the outset, are just 36%. It’s a dramatic disconnect, obviously, but it also points to the fact that inflation is driving the train. And as long as inflation remains, even if it you know, remains where it is, it’s still sticky,” Wapner said.
He asked, “And how do you compete against that narrative? Because otherwise, you could build a case to say, ‘You know what, the economy is pretty good, but people don’t care because they’re tired of paying higher prices, and they think the president is at least in part to blame.”
“Look, I hear where you’re coming from. And I get this question all the time. But I feel like that line of questioning is starting to get a little bit stale. And the reason I say that —” Bernstein answered.
“How?” Wapner asked.
“I’m going to explain — the reason I say that is — is you’ve got to get into some of the guts of what these polls are telling us,” Bernstein said.
According to Moody’s Analytics earlier this month, Americans are spending approximately $709 more per month on goods and services compared to two years ago. Inflation has been trending downwards but year-over-year, inflation still shows a 3.2% increase. The Labor Department reported that inflation rose by 0.2% in July, the first increase of the year.
Bernstein remarked that the polling number “invokes a level of political tribalism that has a lot to do with things other than how the economy is doing” despite inflation continuing to improve.
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“You talk about inflation, inflation expectations are down in the University of Michigan survey, so I think if you get under the hood, you look at some of the more recent trends. We’re beginning to see particularly — and I think it is disinflation, I think it’s the fact that inflation went from 9 to 3%, is registering with folks and especially when it starts generating real wage gains. I think the remarkable thing in this economy that you didn’t mention is we got all that inflation reduction without giving up anything thus far on the unemployment rate for aficionados of the Phillips curve, that’s a zero-sacrifice ratio,” Bernstein said.
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He added, “And that’s a strategy to get real wages going up, maintain tight labor market with easing inflation, real wage gains. That’s precisely what we’re seeing, and it’s starting to show up in some of these poll numbers.”
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