They are reporting accurately, but not completely. Hmm.

Unemployment is down, that is a fact. Sure about that?
St. Louis Fed (FRED): Total Unemployed, Plus All Persons Marginally Attached to the Labor Force, Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons, as a Percent of the Civilian Labo

The U-6 number is higher than just before the pandemic (7.1 in August of 2023 vs. 6.9 of Janurary, 2020).

Inflation is down, also.

Inflation is down?
St. Louis Fed (FRED): Inflation, consumer prices for the United States (FPCPITOTLZGUSA) | FRED

Consumer prices by the St. Louis Fed's measures are significantly higher. As in, 6.5x higher.

Did the Inflation Reduction Act have anything to do with that? I dunno.

No it didn't. The IRA was Biden's climate change agenda. Pumping more printed money into an inflationary environment...only creates more upward pressure on pricing. In fact, these kinds of things make the pain WORSE because instead of reining in the profligate spending to give the Fed's interest rate hikes time to work, Biden thought it better to ram this stuff through.

Is any of the above being reported? Nope.
How about the rest of what the government says and the media reports?

dailycaller.com - Biden wage data revision
The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised a wage growth estimate by a massive margin, showing real wages actually declined in the fourth quarter of 2022, the agency reported on Thursday.

In March, the BLS previously reported a fourth-quarter increase of 4.9% for hourly compensation in nonfarm businesses, but updated it to a decrease of 0.7% on Thursday, according to its revised Productivity and Costs report. At the same time hourly wages fell, inflation rose, leading to a 4.7% decline in 'real hourly compensation, which takes into account consumer prices,' according to the BLS.

BLS continually reports rosy numbers for the media to grab headlines with, then correct on page Z102 several months later.

Based on the chart, the fluctuation in poverty is consistent with the past ~60 years. It's still not a good thing, but in terms of the trend I don't believe it is worse (or better) than it has been. Which is kinda sad. In 60 years we have made almost no difference, no matter whom had the reins of power.


This is what the "crime isn't a problem" activists I have to deal with in Seattle do: move the goalposts to some other point in time and use it to try and make a comparison. Doesn't work. What matters in terms of talking about recoveries and where we need to be after a Black Swan event is the comparison between the entry point of the Black Swan event - 2019 - and the exit point (now).

And in that sense, poverty is up.