LESSONS
And because all the macroeconomic numbers were really good, Democrats should have won across-the-board, up and down the ballot.
But they didn't.
The unemployment numbers were great. So were the economic growth numbers. And the inflation that peaked at 9.1 percent for one month was, according to the Federal Reserve, over before the election.
But Democrats didn't win.
They lost big, because they failed to understand the difference between macroeconomics and kitchen-table economics.
The macro inflation (measured by price indexes) may have been over, but what wasn't over were the high prices consumers were still paying, many of which had increased far more than the macro numbers implied. And it is those numbers - the kitchen-table numbers - that voters cared about and Democrats ignored.
So they lost.
Of course, the kitchen-table numbers are not independent of the macro numbers. The media's focus on the macro idea of "inflation" is what brought out the price gougers who were responsible for the terrible kitchen-table numbers.
All of which means Democrats failed in two ways. They failed to show what was actually responsible for the macro inflation. And they failed to address kitchen-table economics.
And so we have The Price of Cheese: How Too Much Stupidity, Not Too Much Money, Caused An Inflation.
One of the most important lessons we learned from the inflation the Federal Reserve had under control by September 2024 is, it wasn't caused by money, it was caused by stupidity.
Another thing we learned is, the ideas and policies that caused it are still at the center of American politics and economics.
Which means we have to expect more of the same in the future.
And when that happens, we should also expect those who are responsible to, as they did this time, point their fingers at others and say, "They did it. It wasn't me. It was the inflation gremlin. It was the money printers."
But there is no inflation gremlin.
There are only facts.
And one fact that matters is, if inflations are no longer about someone printing huge quantities of money, it is easy to see who did what to prices, and why.
The Price of Cheese: How Too Much Stupidity, Not Too Much Money, Caused An Inflation explains it all.
The author, Dr. Dennis Paulaha, is a Ph.D. economist.
