Silent Boom: Business, Manufacturing Surge Despite Inflation | News Radio 1200 WOAI
While public perception of the economy continues to wallow in negativity focused mostly on gas prices and stubborn inflation, there is a quiet boom underway that is not getting as much attention. New federal data reveal that U.S. manufacturing activity is surging, with factory output rising last month at the highest level in more than four years, while business service activity rose to its highest mark in nearly five years. At the same time, employmant in manufacturing and business services increased at a four-year high. “What we’re seeing is actually a business boom in the United States,” says John Carney, economics and finance editor of Breitbart. “The economy appears to be growing as fast as five percent annualized in September, and probably for the third quarter we’re going to get a (GDP) number as high as four percent…so this is a rapidly growing economy.”
These positive numbers come on the heels of recent news that the U.S. poverty rate hit a record low last year, while household wages reached a record high. Still, much of the media coverage and public opinion remain negative on the economy, primarily due to inflation and gas prices. And time is rapidly running out for President Trump and Republicans to turn that narrative around. “In my experience, people’s impressions about how the country and the economy are doing really get settled between Memorial Day and July 4th,” says Carney. “After that, it becomes very hard to change people’s minds about what is happening on the ground…so most people’s views on the economy are probably going to be unchanged between now and Election Day.”
Ironically, all of the positive factors in the economy helped convince the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate this month, which can raise the cost of large purchases like homes and cars and further dampen public perception of the economy. “The problem is that inflation ran so hot under Biden that we’re still struggling with prices that seem too high,” says Carney. “One of the things inflation does is it poisons people’s minds against the economy for years to come, and we’re still dealing with that.”
“But objectively, this is one of the best economies we have seen in a generation.”
