Despite the pledge of President Joe Biden’s administration to prioritize and empower the American middle class, they have experienced a substantial economic setback.
Economists at the University of California, Berkeley, have revealed that since the Federal Reserve began its sharp increases in interest rates, the middle class has lost over $2 trillion in wealth, Bloomberg reports.
This startling fact, combined with the soaring costs of everyday essentials, has exacerbated financial pressure on the middle class.
This data sheds new light on the financial situation of around 100 million American citizens who earn annual incomes between $45,000 and $180,000 and possess wealth ranging from $100,000 to $1 million.
For this critical demographic, the cost of living has increased dramatically.
Everyday items like food, housing, automobiles, and energy have all become significantly more expensive.
Additionally, an end to the era of affordable loans means borrowing money has also become costlier.
The current economic predicament comes amidst a period of escalating inflation and the quickest increase in Federal Reserve interest rates since the 1980s, Bloomberg notes.
This challenging economic environment is causing persistent concern for the middle class’s future, as revealed by a Bloomberg News-commissioned poll.
President Biden’s economic strategy, often referred to as “Bidenomics,” has purportedly been geared towards bolstering the middle class, which he has declared as the spine of the American economy.
During a Thursday briefing in South Carolina, Biden touted the “progress we made building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not trickling down. When you build from the middle out and bottom up, everybody does well, and the wealthy still do very well.”
“It’s all part of an economic vision for this country,” he said.
“That’s Bidenomics. It’s rooted in what always worked best for this country: investing in America. Because when you invest in our people, when you strengthen the middle class, we see stronger economic growth that benefits everybody.”
Biden’s grand vision of economic growth for the non-wealthy is at odds with the current reality.
In fact, a mere 39% of the middle-class Americans surveyed in a Harris Poll commissioned by Bloomberg in late March and June believe their financial situation will improve within the next year.
This poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.
These findings bring into question the effectiveness of the Biden administration’s policies that claim to support the middle class, especially as his 2024 reelection campaign looms less than 18 months away.
