In the contrast between elites — in Washington and on Wall Street — and the working-class Americans across our country, two words banded about in recent months stand out: “soft landing.”
In economic parlance, the term refers to whether a combination of monetary policy decisions by the Federal Reserve, macroeconomic forces, and sheer good luck can manage to lower inflation levels without crushing economic activity to the point that it causes a recession and/or massive job losses.
But to people in the nation’s heartland, the words “soft landing,” as they relate to our economy, represent something between a misnomer and an insult. On multiple levels, millions of families have been getting kicked in the teeth for years — and will continue to do so, whether a recession arrives or not. To suggest that there’s anything “soft” about it just shows the people who run our economy are out of touch.
Inflation Baked into Prices
A few weeks ago, the latest inflation report showed that the consumer price index rose by “only” 3.7 percent in September. That’s down by more than half from the 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June 2022. But lower levels of inflation haven’t begun to solve the problems created by “Bidenomics.”
While inflation may have abated somewhat — that is, prices are rising more slowly — the American economy hasn’t experienced deflation, with prices actually falling. Even if the price of a hypothetical sofa may remain at $1,200 for a while, it has very little chance
