U.S. Weathering Global Inflation Better Than G-7 Counterparts—Thanks, President Biden!

In her budget speech last week, Governor Kristi Noem continued to falsely attribute inflation to President Joe Biden and his policies. But empirical data from the global economy indicates that the reason Governor Noem can shrug off that bugaboo inflation and put South Dakota on a wild big-government spending spree is that President Biden is managing inflation and other economic headwinds better than other Group of Seven nations.

According to this new summary from the Center for American Progress, the U.S. has the highest core inflation in the G-7 but is in the middle of the pack for overall inflation:

Our GDP has been growing since Biden took office, and growing faster than in any other G-7 country:

While we had the highest spike in unemployment at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re now matching the United Kingdom and beating Italy, France, and Canada at keeping our workforce working:

For this comparatively good economic performance, President Biden ought to get some credit:

During and following the COVID-19 recession, fiscal supports, such as the American Rescue Plan of 2021, and a historic federal vaccination program helped steward the U.S. economy to an unprecedented recovery, averting a double-dip recession, higher poverty rates, and the scarring impacts of longer periods of unemployment. At President Joe Biden’s instigation, Congress has passed an industrial strategy—in the form of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act—that is helping set the economy on a path of resilience and independence. The evidence suggests that, despite headwinds, the United States is set up to have a stronger economic outlook than many other leading industrial nations—some of which have already seen their economies contract or fall flat [Khattar and Vela, 2022.12.08].

But all those statistics and policy specifics are beyond Kristi’s ken… as is giving credit where credit crosses her personal political attention-seeking.