Subject: Re: The "Failing" Biden Economy
Inflation is not doing badly, but people have the sense it's doing badly.

Again, there is a difference between price levels and the monthly or TTM inflation rate. The U.S. hadn't seen a rate of price increases like we had from mid-2021 to mid-2022 in forty years. The fact that those price spikes have now slipped outside the 12-month inflation comparisons doesn't lower prices. The two-year inflation rate, comparing 2023 prices to 2021 prices, is 13.5%. People are mad about that. The fact that the rate is lower in 2023 than it was in 2022 doesn't make them happier about that.

Plus, even the inflation rate is still doing badly - just not as badly as it was in 2022. Inflation at 3% is still higher than at any time since 2011. That's not great - and that's the best way of looking at inflation for the Administration.