Despite farcical claims about the wonderful success of Bidenomics, Americans don’t buy the media and White House spin any longer, if they ever did. They know the economy’s going backward and that inflation remains a dire threat to our nation’s standard of living and its global economic leadership.

For those of a certain age, there’s a whiff of 1970s-style stagflation in the air. It was a period of high inflation, insufficient growth, and, to borrow a phrase, near-universal cultural and economic malaise. Everyone felt as if they were falling behind.

After a 40-year stretch of low inflation, solid growth and rising real incomes, the economy has returned to its dire ’70s-version. Inflation, in particular, is back, and much worse than the official numbers show.

Fed by soaring federal spending, surging interest rates, and a $30-trillion-plus pile of IOUs that has doubled our national debt payments in just a year, inflation has remained stubbornly high. Some fear it could suddenly revive again, as it did in 1980, when it took a second round of huge Fed rate hikes to quell the fire.

We’re not the only ones to notice. Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase’s chief market strategist Marko Kolanovic wrote this week that “we believe that there is a risk of the narrative turning back from Goldilocks towards something like 1970s stagflation.”

This growing concern is a big reason why former President Donald Trump, who presided over tepid inflation, solid economic growth and low unemployment during his term in office, is now crushing all his Republican opponents in the primaries, and leads President Joe Biden in the polls.

Some eye-opening numbers gathered by economist Steve Moore show why inflation is such an issue in this election, even as Democrats falsely brag of vanquishing it as a threat.

Since the start of Biden’s time in office, a mere three years ago, overall consumer prices have surged 18%. That, Moore notes, is “the worst three-year performance since the Jimmy Carter years.”

Moore’s helpful chart can be seen just below.

Shocking, isn’t it?

Note that these are the things that almost all middle- and lower-income Americans spend money on each and every month. They’re the “unavoidables”: Housing, food, and energy. Looking at the chart, you can see these necessities have all surged during the Biden years, creating a terrible hardship for average Americans.

Who’s suffering most from these soaring costs? Well, everyone, but especially those on the lower rungs of the income ladder.

For Democrats scratching their heads over why significant numbers of African Americans and Hispanic Americans are contemplating voting for Trump, they need look no further than “Bidenomics Is Bad Economics“, posted on RealClearPolicy:

Black workers and Hispanic workers have also fared significantly worse in the Biden era. Black workers experienced $65.70 increase in real weekly earnings in the Trump era compared to $28.80 in the Biden era. Hispanic workers experienced $47.20 increase in real weekly earnings in the Trump era compared to $7.80 in the Biden era.

The authors conclude: “So, is Bidenomics working? For the millions of struggling Americans grappling with inflation, stagnant wages, and unattainable housing, the answer is a resounding no.”

There has been no victory in the war against inflation. Not yet. In just the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen headlines such as these: Commercial foreclosures increase 97% from last year to near decade-high, Macy’s to close 150 stores, or about 30% of its locations, The Lasting Damage of Bidenomics, and Making $150K considered ‘lower middle class’ in these U.S. cities.

These are all after-effects of the inflation bomb that hit us in the last three years as the government spent trillions of dollars and shut down the U.S. economy. The results were entirely predictable and are still being felt at all levels of the economy.

As former President Jimmy Carter discovered at the end of his single term, the electorate will not forgive an American leader for inflation. It wrecks everything.

Like termites, inflation works its way through the structure of the economy from the ground up, weakening foundations as it goes until things start to crumble and break apart. It’s happening now, as the headlines above attest. Keynesians, who seem to think inflation is a good thing, never tire of being proven terribly wrong.

Biden could have taken the high road, admitting his foolish mistake of spending so much money so fast and so wastefully, and then vowing to right the ship.

He might have won even the grudging respect of those on the other side of the debate, including former Clinton adviser and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who warned Democrats and Biden in 2021 that they were making an epic mistake. They didn’t listen.

Instead, Biden sounds more like the mumbling, unscrupulous power-plant owner Mr. Burns in “The Simpsons,” deflecting any blame and nattering on about shrinkflation and corporate greed really being the problems. He’s finding out now Americans aren’t stupid.

Want to know why Biden’s job-approval rating in his third year was the second-lowest ever? And why he continues to lag Trump by two percentage points in recent presidential polls, including our own I&I/TIPP Poll?

Of course, there are lots of reasons, including his administration’s open border, Biden’s obvious age-related mental issues, allegations of corruption, our botched departure from Afghanistan and of course, the disastrous COVID response among many others.

But the failure that’s having the most lasting effect on Biden’s standing among voters is letting the evil inflation Genie out of the bottle. It’s hit average Americans hard, cutting into living standards and creating financial insecurity and, even, panic for some on fixed incomes.

After all, inflation isn’t an abstract number; it’s a measure of what your dollar will actually buy. Since 2021, your purchasing power has shrunk at its fastest rate in decades. And even more favorable inflation data in coming months can’t undo the damage.

A recent survey by online numbers cruncher Statista and YouGov found that the No. 1 among voters was “prices/inflation.” Biden will lose if he doesn’t get it: “It’s the inflation, stupid.”

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board