By any reasonable historical standard, the American economy is doing very well right now. The unemployment rate is extremely low; inflation is effectively down to about 3 percent; interest rates are at historically normal levels; and the markets are doing just fine, thank you. And yet, Biden is getting little credit from the voters for this. Reagan had “Morning in America;” for Biden, it’s around 8:00 PM. Why?
Partisanship is a big part of the public relations problem, of course. The MSM haven’t helped, either; at times, NBC sounds a lot like Fox News when its reporters talk about the economy. I think, however, that the biggest problem is timing and expectations. The Reagan boom was sudden and dramatic, and came after years of grinding stagflation; the Biden boom is none of those things. People today take low unemployment and inflation levels for granted, because that is what they enjoyed before the pandemic.