Biden boom continues
By 
Another excellent job report:
US employers added 254,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday — more than 100,000 above forecasts, signaling that the economy is still powering ahead despite fears of a slowdown.
The report — released just a month before Election Day — showed that the jobless rate fell to 4.1 percent, while hourly wages grew at an annual pace of 4 percent. While the report far exceeded expectations, it’s in keeping with a so-called soft landing, where the economy avoids a recession, which everyone — especially Vice President Kamala Harris — had hoped the Federal Reserve could achieve after it undertook one of the most aggressive series of rate hikes in its history in 2022 and 2023.
The report comes as Harris is closing the gap with former President Donald Trump in voters’ perception of who would be the best steward of the economy. Trump still holds a 5-point lead, beating Harris on the issue 50-45 percent, according to a Cook Political Report survey of swing-state voters. But the former president’s 6-point edge in August on “getting inflation under control” has disappeared, and they’re now even.
The most salient facts about the economy under Biden and Harris is that 1)post-pandemic inflation was ubiquitous among major liberal democracies after the pandemic, but 2)the economic recovery in the US has been much stronger. The fact that Trump has been able to sell nostalgia for his administration as a major selling point is Alice in Wonderland stuff even by the standards of American political discourse.
The last time prime-age Americans were working this much, the World Trade Center was still standing pic.twitter.com/5YtXTFDQXg— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) October 4, 2024