From Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman in today's New York Times op ed:
"You may have heard about the good economic news. Labor force participation — the share of adults in today’s work force — is actually slightly higher than the Congressional Budget Office predicted before the pandemic. Measures of underlying inflation have fallen more or less back to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target even though unemployment is near a 50-year low. Adjusted for inflation, most workers’ wages have gone up.
For some reason I’ve heard less about the crime news, but it’s also remarkably good. F.B.I. data shows that violent crime has subsided: It’s already back to 2019 levels and appears to be falling further. Homicides probably aren’t quite back to 2019 levels, but they’re plummeting. [snip]
The big question, of course, is whether grim narratives will prevail over relatively sunny reality in the 2024 election. There are hints in survey data that the good economic news is starting to break through, but I don’t know of any comparable hints on crime.
In any case, what you need to know is that America responded remarkably well to the economic and social challenges of a deadly pandemic. By most measures, we’re a nation on the mend. Let’s hope we don’t lose our democracy before people realize that." (our emphasis)
We can't expect our cynical, horse race-obsessed Beltway media to fight for us, and for democracy, against the Malignant Loser's promised authoritarian revenge regime. We hope that, as Krugman writes, some of this good economic news is "starting to break through," but we're aware that the right-wing MAGA media machine is invested in ignoring it or lying about it in order to boost their cult leader's election chances.
