Real Weekly Earnings Down Since 2015, But The Economy Is Hot Anyway?

It’s always cute when most commentary is left hanging with “better than expected.” The straight fact is that the US CPI was lower for the second consecutive month, but since it wasn’t as low as some “analysts” were anticipating, that counts, apparently, as “hot” and in some places “blistering” inflation. There’s no other way to characterize deceleration as scorching other than pure hysteria.

This is a sickness born from desperation. Ironically, if there was so much similar concern about the economy it would be a good thing. After all, that’s what we’ve been waiting for more than ten years now. Someone of substance and standing to stand up and say, “this isn’t right.” Trump was so far the closest, until his inauguration.

Instead, the desperation is all pointed in the other direction. The status quo must hold for many people who already occupy positions of authority and influence. Unfortunately for them, and us, a broken economy is an immediate and direct rebuke of the status quo. A permanently broken one argues for more radical solutions still.

Thus, what has happened is that those in the so-called establishment have tried, unsuccessfully, to argue time and again that the economy isn’t really broken. There are, and have been, variations on this theme. The first is the Bernanke version that the economy has actually been good and that people are bitching about it because that’s what they do, and their ignorance stands in the way of really understanding and appreciating his pure genius.

A modification of that narrative is the current one about globalization. In this branch, the economy is still largely good but because globalization is disruptive it’s inarguable societal benefits have accrued unevenly on the ground. At the most extreme, it has been a net negative for certain populations (like the racists in the Rust Belt, according to this theory, who in the end were responsible for Mr. Trump’s winning margin).