We recently got word that consumer confidence is plumbing new depths, and in fact the numbers have long been stuck at a level of despondency that usually signals the onset of a recession. The mainstream media, of course, is gleeful at this “news”, which they helped to create, since any economic downturn would be sure to weaken Trump and the MAGA movement, and harming Trump and Trumpism is what leftists live for these days!
The problem, however, is that these horrifying and portentous numbers are doubly irrational. How so?
First, they are tainted by partisan bias. The gap between how Democrats and Republicans perceive the state of the economy has been growing for decades, and in the Trump era it has become a chasm. Democrats, in a nutshell, believe that, as soon as Trump won the 2024 election, what had been a super-terrific economy under Joe Biden instantly turned into THE WORST ECONOMY EVER!!! I mean, it's like the Great Depression out there, only orange-tinted and much, much worse. Democrats have thus been seized by a fanatical pessimism that is reflected not only in their ever-so-strong disapproval of President Trump and his policies, but also their perception of the job market, prices, economic growth, and much else. Democrats, to put it simply, have lost their minds when it comes to the economy, and their paranoid delusions are having a serious impact on aggregate measures of consumer confidence, and investor confidence too. It is a small miracle that the markets have thus far avoided falling into the pit of despair into which almost all American progressives have long since chosen to dive headfirst.
The second reason why the glum sentiments of consumers are irrational is even more telling. Economic pessimism makes no sense in the present moment because the economy is strong, and President Trump has made it stronger. Inflation is low, despite claims that tariffs would drive it higher. Wage gains regularly outpace inflation, meaning that Americans' buying power is increasing. Meanwhile, economic growth is high – it's in Reagan territory, in fact, and has left Biden's stagflation in the dust. Trillions of dollars in domestic and foreign investment has been pledged, which, if even a fraction of it materializes, will usher in a new golden age of American prosperity. In addition, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenues are helping to ease our nation's fiscal woes, bringing the deficit under control and breathing new life into expensive programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Meanwhile, every major market is flirting with record highs on a daily basis. True, there are widespread concerns about the future impact of AI and robots on the job market, but unemployment is currently low overall. We are a long way from a jobs crisis in America.
The upshot of these revelations is that, increasingly, while our economy is strong and resilient, it is weighed down by a great pall of irrationality generated by a sensationalist/catastrophist press and the ravages of Trump Derangement Syndrome. We can only wonder how long the markets can resist the toxic effects of this artificial malaise. In addition, we can only speculate on what the current economic picture would look like if consumers, businesses, and investors were riding high on the kind of optimism that the present situation actually merits. How many trillions have been wiped off corporate balance sheets, investor returns, and private sector sales figures by the synthetic gloom that financial “journalists” and Trump-hating talking heads have engendered? It is a beyond tragic how many tens of millions of Americans still listen to this drivel, but it is also, undeniably, a fact of life in our modern economy that has profound real world impacts.
Indeed, if we aren't careful, the self pity and anguish of Democrats and progressives will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they might succeed in dragging all Americans, even those with a firm grip on reality, into the abyss of recession and depression. If that happens, it certainly won't be Trump who is responsible. It will be the political left, which sees only what it wants to see – meaning doom and gloom – and which unfortunately has the capital, influence, and expertise to make at least some of its fever dreams come true.
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is a history professor at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmakers show on WLEA/WYSL.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and bold policies, America’s economy is back on track.
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