Opinion
By Steve Nicklas- 10-29-24
The malfunctioning Biden-Harris administration spews out numbers like a cash register at Publix. Unlike your grocery bill, most of the government numbers don’t add up, however.
Whether the numbers are about jobs or inflation or border crossings, there is a clear disconnect. But this is not like solving a quadratic equation. This entails simply counting and reporting factual numbers to the public. Especially the financial markets, which move on each report.
Just recently, the lame-duck administration had to disclose it exaggerated the number of new jobs by 818,000. That’s a monumental error bordering on deceitful. (The administration reportedly was waiting to release the “bad news” until after the elections, but the information leaked.)
And each month the administration blurts out numbers conducive to a robust job market, only to reduce them the following month. Meanwhile, if you subtract 818,000 jobs from the 2 million the administration contends it created, that leaves a little over a million – in four years.
Complicating the tabulations, most of the new jobs were in government and healthcare (funded by Medicare and other government spending). In addition, many are part-time jobs; this includes the hiring of foreign-born workers and even illegal immigrants.
Even the biggest and most profitable corporations are laying off workers, like Wal-Mart. These layoffs have dominated the headlines, and hardly jive with the government’s self-indulging numbers of economic bliss. As the media and Wall Street cheer on the deceptive process.
Now Walgreen’s is closing hundreds of stores. This is not a bullish sign, although some of it is inevitably due to rampant theft in stores in major cities. In turn, this casts doubt over the economic growth the wayward administration is quoting.
Inflation is another number they manipulate. You hear inflation is coming down – from the cataclysmic peak caused by their exhaustive spending. And inflation is measured year over year; in total, it’s up 20 percent or higher under the Biden-Harris regime.
Looking around, you wonder if the U.S. economy is teetering on a recession. A saving force is the Federal Reserve, which began cutting interest rates last month. This is to stimulate the wobbling economy.
However, this is the administration of deception. Look over here, so you do not see what’s happening over there. While they massage their message.
And then they boast that border crossings are down. Again, down from the mountain-like peak, but the damage has been done. Some 20 million illegals have entered our country under the watch of border czar Kamala Harris. Now, the administration is reportedly holding thousands of migrants in Mexico to temporarily deflate the numbers – to boost Harris’ languishing presidential campaign.
As the saying goes, numbers don’t lie. But bureaucrats do.
Steve Nicklas is the managing partner of Nicklas Wealth Management in Fernandina Beach. He is also an award-winning columnist. His columns regularly appear in weekly newspapers in Northeast Florida and in Southeast Georgia, and on his website at www.SteveNicklasMarketplace.com. He has published a book, “All About Money,” of his favorite columns from the past 20 years. The book is available on Amazon. He has also done financial reports for area radio stations and for National Public Radio in Jacksonville. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 904-753-0236.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
