The Tulsa World published an article on the US economy on May 16 (“Prices in US Cool Slightly”). The piece, while informative, missed the much larger point.
On the day before, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the things Americans bought in 2023 were actually cheaper to buy in 2023 than those same things were in 2019. In short, buying power was greater for all Americans in 2023 than it was in 2019.
The CBO report concluded that we, as buyers, were better off now than in 2019 because household incomes grew faster than prices over that four-year period. The actual wording of the report was that “for all income groups … the portion of household income required to purchase the same bundle of goods and services declined.”
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For all of us, from the bottom to the top of incomes, all had our buying power increase.
Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. are increasing for the first time since 1947, and unemployment is below 4% for the past 27 months. Also, for those fortunate enough to have retirement accounts or other assets in U.S. stock markets, those also closed at all-time highs in mid-May.
Anyone who believes the present economy is bad and that they’re worse off now than in 2019 is paying too much attention to news outlets.
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