How Much Credit Biden Merits for the Economy

Re: the meme here, a reader opines: Brandon has nothing to do with it. No politician had anything to do with it.

I agree that, generally, U.S. presidents tend to get too much credit when things go right, and too much blame when they head south.

Yet in this case it’s unclear, to me at least, how much credit Biden actually deserves for what appears an extremely robust economy, as measured by job growth, stock market valuations, inflation control, etc.

One can identify a great number of public sector investments that are aimed at rebuilding/expanding infrastructure, bringing manufacturing jobs (especially cleantech) back from overseas, expanding energy security, and post-COVID recovery.  One can add, on top of that, that these investments are simply paying off precisely as they were intended.

Many economists are surprised that so much growth was possible without, for instance, huge rates of inflation causing rising interest rates that in turn sent us into recession.  It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of a “soft landing” was something of a pipe dream.

Granted, all this is not an easy pill to swallow if you’re a Republican, praying for a meltdown going into election season, but it does seem to be the case.