MSNBC's Hayes: Biden Economic Recovery Most Remarkable in U.S. History

January 26th, 2023 9:55 PM

Forget about the recession and rampant, crippling inflation that has soared to 40-year-highs, MSNBC's All In host Chris Hayes was here to assure you that the Biden economic recovery has been "one of the most successful, remarkable recoveries in all of American economic history." Sadly for Hayes, the large eyeglasses on his face won't make him seem smart with economically illiterate comments like that. The pollyannaish host made these comments on the heels of Thursday's GDP report which showed the economy grew by an anemic 2.9 percent. 

Hayes began by ironically complaining about the negative media coverage of the Biden economy: "If you've been watching the news over the past few weeks, you might get the sense the U.S. is hemorrhaging jobs, as high-profile companies from Amazon to Meta, to Goldman Sachs, and IBM lay off thousands of workers." 

"But one of the constants of the Biden economy is that there's a weird, persistent gap between the media’s coverage of the economy, which is almost always everything’s terrible, and what the data show about its actual state," Hayes whined.

Apparently, when there were layoffs in major American corporations, it means nothing for the state of the overall economy, and the media was supposed to ignore the news to help Biden's electoral prospects. 

 

 

He then pointed to a chart that showed a graph of the direction the economy was headed and bragged that "the U.S. economy grew by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022."

"After the economy fell off a cliff during the pandemic, we now seem to be -- look at that, back on the same growth trend as before the pandemic hit. That did not happen for years after the great financial crisis," Hayes said in amazement. 

He then unironically said, "I think it's safe to say this has been one of the most successful, remarkable recoveries in all of American economic history." 

Apparently, Hayes never studied the 1980s in college which saw President Ronald Reagan's policies of tax cuts and deregulation create nearly 20 million jobs, and end crippling inflation that the Carter administration saddled the country with. 

Hayes then misleading noted that under Biden "we had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Job growth over the past two years, the highest rate ever, more jobs in the first two years of the Biden administration than any President ever. Inflation is coming down, wages are up, particularly concentrated in the lowest quintiles." 

Giving people their jobs back after being taken away because of the left's totalitarian lockdowns during the pandemic isn't creating new jobs. Also, inflation isn't coming down, it just isn't rising as much each month as it had previously. Prices are still 6.5 percent higher than they were the year prior. 

Finally, Hayes claimed that "getting cash into people's hands, getting people back to work, running the economy hot, even risking inflation, is bearing incredible fruit if the Federal Reserve doesn't kill it by raising rates." 

The Federal Reserve wouldn't need to raise rates if the government never put "cash into people's hands" and started "running the economy hot." 

Those reckless fiscal policies are the reason we are in the economic and inflationary death spiral we're in currently. 

This buffoonish segment on MSNBC was made possible thanks to the lucrative sponsorship of Simplisafe. Their information is linked so you can contact them. 

To read the relevant transcript, click "expand": 

MSNBC’s All In
1/26/2023
8:53:49 p.m. Eastern

CHRIS HAYES: So, if you've been watching the news over the past few weeks, you might get the sense the U.S. is hemorrhaging jobs, as high-profile companies from Amazon to Meta, to Goldman Sachs, and IBM lay off thousands of workers. It has been brutal for the tens of thousands of people affected, including some people here inside NBC Universal. 

But one of the constants of the Biden economy is that there's a weird, persistent gap between the media’s coverage of the economy, which is almost always everything’s terrible, and what the data show about its actual state. And once again, here we are! The Commerce Department reported today, the U.S. economy grew by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. After the economy fell off a cliff during the pandemic, we now seem to be -- look at that, back on the same growth trend as before the pandemic hit. 

That did not happen for years after the great financial crisis. I think it's safe to say this has been one of the most successful, remarkable recoveries in all of American economic history. We had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Job growth over the past two years, the highest rate ever, more jobs in the first two years of the Biden administration than any President ever. Inflation is coming down, wages are up, particularly concentrated in the lowest quintiles. All of this, which progressive economics brought to bear, getting cash into people's hands, getting people back to work, running the economy hot, even risking inflation, is bearing incredible fruit if the Federal Reserve doesn't kill it by raising rates.