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Econ watch: No One’s Buying Bidenomics
To hear President Biden “and his team tell it, he was dealt an unusually
bad hand” on the economy when he took office — yet, in truth, corrects
David Winston at Roll Call, it had “already begun to turn around” before
then. Inflation was just 1.4%, and pandemic-era 14.7% unemployment had
fallen to 6.3%. Biden then pushed “trillion-dollar spending bills” that
sent inflation soaring: Prices are 16.6% higher than when he took office, though earnings are up just 12.2%, “leaving Bidenomics with a 4.4 [point] negative wage gap.” No wonder his job approval on the economy is only 34%,
per CBS News: “People who fill their grocery carts and cars every week
simply aren’t buying the Bidenomics’ narrative.”

Libertarian: Teens Not So Polarized
A survey supposedly showing a “stark gender divide” in high-school
seniors’ politics “has sparked misplaced panic,” explains Reason’s Emma
Camp. “Yes, more boys than girls identify as conservative — about twice”
as many — “and girls identify as liberal at a rate 17 percentage points
higher than their male classmates.” But “majorities of both genders
responded without identifying a partisan political identity.” Some 64% of
boys and 58% of girls “didn’t identify as conservative or liberal —
instead, they identified as ‘moderate,’ ‘none of the above,’ or ‘I don’t know.’” So “in reality, these surveyed high school seniors don’t seem to
care all that much about partisan politics.” The poll warrants no concern
over youth polarization and doesn’t justify “government regulation of
social media or online speech.”

Eye on the Empire State: Pointless Wind Power
A recent analysis “reveals the critical weakness in the state’s energy
policy — the need for long-term reliable backup power — and underscores
the tremendous cost of heavy reliance on expensive and unreliable offshore wind,” warns the Empire Center’s James E. Hanley. The study found wind
lulls are “dangerously common,” especially during the summer. So
electricity users “will have to pay for very expensive offshore wind” plus “backup power due to the unreliability of that wind.” When the choice
becomes “unprecedentedly high electricity costs or enduring regular
blackouts, New Yorkers may find getting off the climate activism bandwagon their most attractive option.”

Foreign desk: A Friendless China
“China has spent tens of billions of dollars to boost its global
popularity over the past decade. It hasn’t worked,” exults The Wall Street Journal’s Sadanand Dhume. “In soft power — the attractiveness of a
country’s ideas, institutions and culture — the U.S. far outstrips China.”
In a 2005 Journal piece, “Joseph Nye, the Harvard professor who coined the
term ‘soft power,’ quoted a 22-country BBC poll that found more people
viewed China positively (nearly 50%) than the U.S. (38%).” Pop culture, including the smash film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and Houston
Rockets star Yao Ming, helped. But “global public opinion has soured,”
with two-thirds responding to a 24-country poll seeing “China unfavorably.
Only 28% held a positive opinion.” Yet “America shouldn’t be too
sanguine,” as “raw military and economic power can still count for more
than charm,” and China has plenty of that. And America “is prone to soft-
power blunders of its own, for instance by attempting to export
fashionable woke ideas about sex.”

Liberal: Dems’ Working-Class Woes Grow
Overlooked from the latest New York Times poll, frets The Liberal
Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira, is President “Biden’s weakness among nonwhite working-class (noncollege) voters” — he leads President Donald Trump “by a
mere 16 points among this demographic” vs. a 48-point lead in 2020 and
“Obama’s 67-point advantage in 2012.” This poses “a direct threat to the massive margins Democrats need to maintain among nonwhite voters to
achieve victory,” since they’re “two-thirds to three-quarters of the
nonwhite vote.” The issue: They’re not progressive, “while the Democratic
Party has become more so.” On issues from public safety to renewable
energy to Bidenomics, they feel the party’s left them behind. Remember
Trump’s 2020 success, and don’t “be so sure it couldn’t happen again.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

https://nypost.com/2023/08/06/no-ones-buying-bidenomics-teens-not-so- polarized-and-other-commentary/

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