🧵Biden's economic records indicating a massive boom underway, from those working full-time to corporate profits, with graphs and links to definitive sources. #BidenBoom
Real (inflation-adjusted) GDP hit record level in Q4 '21, after regaining the pre-pandemic peak in Q2 '21. This measures the size of the economy for both production and income. 2/ fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1
Americans are the richest ever measured by net worth, which reached $150 trillion for the first time in Q4 '21. This was due to stock and housing booms. 3/ fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TNWBSHNO
The number of job openings hit a record 11.5 million in March 2022, another sign of the booming labor market and immigration restriction. There are about 2 open jobs per unemployed person, also a record. 4/ fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSJOL
The stock market (S&P 500) reached an all-time record 4,797 on January 3, 2022. Inheriting a near-record stock market level, Biden still set the presidential record of a 37% return measured for his first year from election, with a peak of +42%. 5/ fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SP500
Housing prices, as measured by the median sales price of houses sold, reached an all-time record of $428,700 in Q1 '22, a nearly $70,000 or 20% gain from Q4' 20. About 65% of American households own the home they live in. 6/ fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS
A record few persons are receiving unemployment compensation, with the share of the labor force at an all-time low of 0.86% in April 2022. This is yet another sign of a very hot labor market. 7/ fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_i…
The federal budget deficit is falling at a record pace, and not just because pandemic spending programs are ending. Revenues are up enormously, nearly $1 trillion versus fiscal year 2019 pre-pandemic, due to high incomes and economic activity. 8/ cbo.gov/publication/57…
Corporate profits are about 40% above pre-pandemic levels, reaching an all-time record of $2.7 trillion in Q4 '21. Democrats appear to be good for business! 9/END fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
🧵To what extent has food industry "price gouging" happened? I'll explain & graph as we go, but here's the tl;dr: Companies that increased their gross margin rate on average 2020-2023 vs. 2019 could be considered gougers; sorted by $ impact on consumers. 1/
First, here's how the math works for each company; JNJ example shown. Sales and cost of goods sold (COGS) data from annual reports, the rest is math. Gross margin reflects pricing most directly, as opposed to net income after many other expenses are considered. 2/
We can see that JNJ had GM % above 2019 in 2021-2023, after a drop in 2020. We multiply the excess % margin by the sales to get the excess margin $, which totals $6.65 billion. 3/
🧵Monthly economic update for the July data. First, a record 158.7 million were working, up 6.4 million from the pre-pandemic peak, regained in June 2022. We added 114,000 jobs in July. 1/
Job creation under Biden has been faster than Trump, no matter how you slice it. Since we regained the pre-pandemic peak jobs level in June 2022, job creation has averaged 255,000/month under Biden, vs. 180,000/month pre-pandemic under Trump. 2/
The unemployment rate increased from 4.1% in June to 4.3% in July, which is still lower than 78% of monthly readings back to 1948. The historical average is 5.7%.
The unemployment rate under Biden has averaged 4.11%, the lowest of any president LBJ to present. 3/
🧵A few slides comparing Biden vs. Trump on the economy. First, Biden has the highest real hourly wages on avg of any president at $29.74/hr vs. $28.82/hr for Trump. Yes, workers have more purchasing power under Biden than Trump, despite inflation. Real=Infl-Adj. 1/
Biden also has the lowest unemployment rate on average of any recent president, at 4.11% vs. 5.01% for Trump. 2/
Biden has faster real GDP growth vs. Trump overall, and slighly slower than Trump pre-pandemic. At Q4 '23, Biden was ahead on both. 3/
🧵Monthly economic review through the June data. First, about 6.3 million more were working in June than pre-pandemic. We regained peak employment in June 2022 and have set records monthly since. We added 206,000 jobs in June. 1/
No matter how you slice it, job creation has been much faster under Biden than Trump: 2/
That said, the pace of job creation is slowing. The 3-month average was 177,000. After prior months' adjustments, we added just 95,000 in June. The slowing rate helps ease inflation and gives the Fed more room to cut interest rates. 3/
🧵Let's go through a few of the ways Trump's economic agenda would damage the U.S. economy.
First, tariffs raise prices Americans pay. That is the point, to deter imports.
CBO estimated Trump's tariffs cost families about $1,300/year. But this next round would be bigger. 1/
Trump is proposing a 10% tariff across the board. We imported about $3 trillion in goods in 2023. So that's $300 billion, divided by ~130 million households = $2,300 per household. We can't just make that stuff overnight here, so people will be paying that indefinitely. 2/
But wait, there's more! Trump is proposing a 60% tariff on goods from China. We import around $500 billion of that $3 trillion from China. So if you think my number is a little high on the prior tweet, it's understated from this perspective. 3/
🧵CNN released a transcript of the debate. Some observations. First, it's informative to put it in Word and highlight Trump's lies, which are nearly continuous. Here's an example on tariffs, a key plank of Trump's platform. 1/ cnn.com/2024/06/27/pol…
Trump did something Biden should learn from: On the economic question at the start, Biden struggled with a coherent message, while Trump said right away he presided over the best economy ever and spent what he had to. Biden lost the initiative immediately on the subject. 2/
Biden should have said what Trump did, and then delivered talking points like these right at start so everyone could hear them and media could analyze them. 3/