In a critical story about Trump in WaPo today, too rare, I still ran across this erroneous line: "Most polls show that voters believe he [Trump] is better able to handle the economy and inflation." And I still see such remarks in NY Times on the regular, just this past week: Trump is stronger on the economic "fundamentals," goes a common refrain in reporting. Recent polls conducted by the Financial Times beg to differ. Harris has been more trusted than Trump on the economy since the beginning of August. And as an even more dramatic representation of the misinformation at work here see the second graphic below. The only economic "fundamentals" Trump excels at, super majorities realize, are advocating for large corporations and the wealthy. Not workers or small businesses or most voters. Mainstream economic commentators and popular substack writers are frequently unreliable on this subject as well. Sure, the rich think Trump is better on the economy, better for them. He promises to cut their taxes again (which will only push up deficits and squeeze government services, by the way). If nothing else, after over forty years of this economic hustle we should have learned by now: tax cuts and deregulation for the rich doesn't trickle down but actually imposes economic austerity on the rest of society. In truth, Trump's economic model is based, and this has always been the case, almost entirely on celebrity branding and financial fraud. And his economic policies, such as he's shared in this campaign cycle anyway, are stupid (no, tariffs on foreign trade won't pay for child care) or ridiculously inflationary (deporting millions of workers). But the mainstream press keep insisting Trump's more trusted on the economy and inflation, like it's a settled fact that everyone should know. It's not. In fact, the truth is closer to the opposite of this claim.
I cherry picked the graphics from Adam Tooze's Chartbook and the story behind the graphics (behind a paywall) comes from the Financial Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment