Tag: Great Recession

Commentary: Inflation Is the Reason Joe Biden Is So Unpopular

RealClearWire
Joe Biden

We’ve paid much attention to President Biden’s flagging job approval here, in part because it tends to be a strong predictor of how an election will turn out. Biden is marching into this election season as likely the least popular president to face the voters since Herbert Hoover. While he may yet be saved by the fact that he is facing off against Donald Trump, who brings his own baggage to the table, it’s an ominous indicator.

At the same time, the economy is running hot. Growth is over 3%, unemployment is under 4%, and inflation has fallen from its peak. So why the seeming paradox of an unpopular president in a time of strong economic growth, especially when the strength of the economy is itself a traditional predictor of presidential job approval?

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Existing Home Sales on Track for Worst Year Since at Least 2008

The Center Square

Existing home sales are on track for a dismal year, likely dropping 18% and on course for the worst year since at least 2008’s Great Recession and possibly the worst since 1995. 

And while prices may soften in 2024, single-family homes will remain out of reach for many Americans, National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said Tuesday in the real estate organization’s annual summit. 

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Poll: Americans Haven’t Been This Down on Their Personal Finances Since the Great Recession

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Half of Americans say they are financially worse off now than a year ago, one of the few times 50% of Americans have reported being in a worse position since the great recession in 2008, according to a recent poll.

Of 1,011 respondents, 50% said they are worse off when reflecting on their personal financial situations, and only 35% reported being better off now than they were a year ago, according to the Gallup poll released Wednesday. In 2021 and 2022, Americans were evenly divided between 41% to 41% for being better off versus worse off, and in 2020, Americans were three times more likely to say they were better off, 59% to 20%.

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Pandemic Triggers 89 Percent Increase in U.S. Food Stamp Spending

The Center Square

Spending on food stamps has increased by $53.5 billion – an 89% increase – in the two pandemic years. By comparison, that’s how much the entire program cost in 2009 during the Great Recession.

Spending on the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program grew 88.5% from $60.3 billion in 2019 to $113.8 billion in 2021. Spending on the SNAP program had previously peaked at $79.8 billion in 2013 before declining for the next six years.

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Virginia Unfunded Pension Liabilities Could Triple This Year

The Center Square

If investment returns for Virginia’s pension system come in around negative 6%, the commonwealth’s unfunded liabilities could nearly triple for Fiscal Year 2022, according to a report from the Reason Foundation.

Virginia’s unfunded liabilities for FY2021 were slightly less than $6 billion, but early indicators estimate an average negative 6% return on investments for FY2022. If the commonwealth’s returns are at that rate, its unfunded liabilities would increase to slightly more than $17 billion.

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U.S. Home Ownership Rate Sees Highest Annual Surge Ever Recorded

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The rate of homeownership in the United States saw its highest surge ever recorded in 2020, with homebuying rates jumping significantly even as the country continues to see record-low stock in most states.

The homeownership rate “climbed to 65.5% in 2020, up 1.3% from 2019 and the largest annual increase on record,” the National Association of Realtors said in a press release this week.

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Report: Home Prices 41 Percent Higher Than Previous Peak in 2006 Before Great Recession

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A beige house in a suburban community during the day

Home prices in the U.S. are more than 41% higher than the previous peak recorded in 2006 during the housing boom that preceded the Great Recession, according to a national index.

Home prices hit a new peak in June, increasing at an annual rate of 18.6%, and 2.2% compared to May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index published Tuesday. The index is 95% higher than it was in 2012 when the housing market bottomed out following the recession.

“June 2021 is the third consecutive month in which the growth rate of housing prices set a record,” S&P DJI Managing Director of Index Investment Strategy Craig Lazzara said in a statement. “The National Composite Index marked its thirteenth consecutive month of accelerating prices.”

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Analysis: Deficit Will Top $3.6 Trillion in Fiscal Year 2021 as $7.27 Trillion of the National Debt Comes Due in the 2022

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United States currency

The annual budget deficit has already hit $1.9 trillion and counting for the fiscal year that will end in September, according to the U.S. Treasury’s April statement, and it will reach as high as $3.6 trillion this year, says the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Comparatively, in 2020, the deficit totaled about $3.1 trillion for the entire year.

This comes amid the massive government spending in response to the Covid pandemic, including the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020, the $900 billion phase four legislation in Dec. 2020 and then President Joe Biden’s additional $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus bill in March 2020. Another $2.1 trillion infrastructure plan is in the works. And now, Biden is offering his $6 trillion budget, which will blow another $1.8 trillion hole in the deficit in 2022.

As a result, 33 percent of marketable national debt, or about $7.27 trillion of the $22 trillion of publicly held debt, will be coming due within the next year, according to the latest data by the U.S. Treasury. For perspective, that’s more debt than existed as recently as 2003.

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