Inflation

There are things that a president or Congress can affect, and there are things they can't. One thing that a president's policies can't substantially influence is inflation. 

During Trump's term, inflation was low; though most of Biden's term, inflation has been high. This has caused some voters to conclude that for purely economic reasons, Trump is a better choice for president. The question to ask, one which most people looking for a non-racist rationale for voting for Trump don't ask is "What specific actions did Trump take to keep inflation low and what specific actions did Biden take that resulted in high inflation?" The answer? None and none.

Most economic metrics have been on a positive trend since Obama's first term as we recovered from the recession caused by the housing crash, continuing through the first three years of Trump's term. Then came Covid. The economy virtually shut down for most of 2020. Due to the resulting lack of travel, gas prices dropped precipitously. These unusually low prices would make the return to more normal prices in 2021 and 2022 seem worse than it was. Other factors contributed to high inflation. The fast recovery in 2021 left many businesses scrambling to ramp up production, increase staffing and restart the stalled supply chain. The Econ 101 principle of supply and demand will cause prices to go up in this scenario. There's a theory that the stimulus checks issued in both the Trump and Biden administrations "overheated" the economy, contributing to increased demand with not enough supply. Wages have been going up in most industries, which is another factor. Let's not forget the probability that corporations are taking advantage of the situation to unnecessarily raise prices. Rents have skyrocketed - but this is a function of local property taxes and has nothing to do with anything on the national level. Gas prices, after a peak in 2022 have slowly receded to pre-2020 levels. 

Both Trump and Harris have talked about reducing inflation, even though there's not really anything they can do about it. Harris floated an idea about targeting price gouging. Trump has suggested ending income tax on overtime; both have talked about ending taxes on tips. Trump has made vague promises about rolling back prices. Inflation has slunk back to a more normal level, so whoever gets elected in November can claim to be presiding over low inflation. What both Harris and Trump hope we don't realize is that once prices go up, they're not going back down, at least not macroeconomically. 

If you're looking for reasons to vote for either candidate, the inflation rates of the last few years shouldn't be among them.