Birdnow's Aviary

May 22, 2026

Talk of Economic Malaise Greatly Exaggerated

Timothy Birdnow

This is interesting; a new Fox poll suggests Trump and Republicans are in trouble over the economy.

From the article:

Polling by Fox News shows public sentiment on President Donald J. Trump’s economy is souring, with 77 percent of voters now describing the economy as being in bad shape, up from 73 percent last month and 71 percent a year ago. Only 23 percent view it positively, the lowest share in more than a year. Trump’s overall economic approval rating now sits at 29 percent, down from 34 percent in April. Inflation is his weakest area, with approval at only 24 percent—a drop from 35 percent in January. Even Republicans give Trump’s economic performance majority disapproval, at 51 percent, while among independents and Democrats, disapproval stands at 85 percent and 96 percent, respectively.

How can this be so? Inflation has not spiked, unemployment is down over the last five year trend, wages are up, the stock market is up. In fact, the Dow just hit a new record high. And while gas prices are up the cost of gasoline STILL is well under what it was during the Biden era. Yes, inflation has risen from 2.2% to 3.8% but that is a temporary spike caused by rising gas prices, and that is still well below the inflation rate under Joe Biden, who drove inflation all the way up to 9% at one point.

And we are expected to have more people traveling this Memorial Day that at any other time in history, which shows people have the money and are not feeling particularly worried about the economy.

The whole "affordability crisis" is a hoax, a psy-op, a gaslighting scheme. The public is doing very well, by and large, and the economy is strong no matter what people THINK. So why do they think it? Largely because they are being told there is an affordability crisis, that's why, and because most people have the memory of a gnat and have forgotten how much worse it was under Biden than now. All they know is gas prices are up and groceries haven't come down that much, but that was to be expected; we have to have DEFLATION for that, and deflation is even more destructive in many ways to inflation. It locks up lending. If you need to borrow money you will have to turn over your first-born to get credity in a heavily deflationary cycle.

That's why there was the whole "free silver" movement in the last nineteenth century. Farmers in particular were being creamed by tight credit; farmers always have to borrow, especially if there is bad weather and they are facing a poor crop. They couldn't get loans. So the Populists came along and promised to have some good old fashioned INFLATION and to do that they wanted to go off the gold standard and to a bimetallic standard, thus increasing the money supply. Increase the money supply and you increase inflation, thus ending the cycle of deflation. (BTW you get pay CUTS under deflation rather than raises. We were perilously close to deflation over the last year and that's why wages haven't gone up as much as we would like.)

Democrat William Jennings Bryan co-opted the Populist Party platform and gave his immortal "Cross of Gold" speech in which he likened the gold standard to the crucifix upon which the American People were being crucified. It made his name immortal but in the end all Bryan ever did thereafter was give variations of that speech. He didn't become President. (He DID become Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson and resigned in disgust at Wilson's determination to get us into WWI, but that's another story.)

At any rate we've been in a low inflationary period since Biden, and we've only had the inflation we have had because Congress has continued to blow vast sums of money, leading the Fed to be forced to print more or risk deflation and a lockup of capital markets.

Still, this is indeed a golden age, as Trump asserts, in many ways and our economy is certainly robust enough. But the media nad the "influencers" on Tik Tok and the other social platforms keep repeating the lie that the economy is in shambles.

I remember the George H.W. Bush re-election. The economy was fine but the media began repeating endlessly that we were going into a recession. This went on for months. Eventually we had a small recession as investors got spooked and Bill Clinton was able to capitalize on that "the worst economy in history". Or as Al Gore said "everything that should be down is up, and everything that should be up is down". Yes, and his hindquarters were up and speaking while his central nervous system was down where the aforementioned body parts were supposed to be.

The media can indeed create a recession out of whole cloth, just by talking the economy down. Bush Sr. was to obtuse to realize that was what they were doing - or too beholden to the old guard Republicans.

At any rate I do not believe many of the polls we are seeing these days. Case in point; a Rasmussen poll I posted about recently said the public solidly supports Democrats over Republicans where it comes to immigration. That is beyond at odds with reality; if Americans are truly that nuts our country is finished. No, I think it was a problem with the way the poll was run, with the algorithms. All pollsters use the same algorithms and when one changes they all change.

And always at this juncture before an election people are not telling pollsters what they truly believe but are often ranting just to feel better. That will change as the election nears and they actually start THINKING. Now it is all emotional bloviating.

We always see the Left doing fine in polls at this point; the polls tighten considerably as the election nears. Part of that is the pollsters don't want to be caught being that far off at election time so the public stops listening to them (and consultants stop hiring them.)

At any rate I think we are in better shape with the public on this issue than Fox News or the rest want to admit. Fox is showing their colors here, methinks, by spreading doom and gloom now. This is intended to try to force Trump to get in line with the GOP Establishment thinking, which of course dominates Fox. (Look at the board of directors there - Karl Rove and the other BUshites).

So chin up! We aren't doing as bad as they claim. At least I certainly hope not.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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