Your Money, Your Vote: How Harris and Trump Plan to Tackle Inflation
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees, but I don't really need it. Inflation is killing me. But who cares? Big retailers are making record profits. That's why we support the Durbin Marshall credit card bill. See? Banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need. While increasing megastore profits. They deserve it, don't they? Tell Congress, stop the Durbin Marshall money grab for corporate megastores. Paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition. Music
This is a special edition of Your Money Briefing for Sunday, September 15th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. The 2024 presidential campaign is brimming with history. Kamala Harris is the nation's first female and first Black vice president. She's also the first person of Indian descent to hold the office. Harris shot to the top of the ticket when President Joe Biden ended his presidential run in July. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is seeking to become the first president in more than 100 years to be reelected after a defeat. He's also the first to be impeached twice and the first to be convicted of a felony. But while a Harris or Trump victory might add new pages to presidential history, there's a prevailing question that's as old as the nation itself.
What will the election mean for your money? Welcome to our special series, Your Money, Your Vote. Over the next four Sundays, we'll examine how a Harris or Trump administration is likely to affect your personal finances so you're better informed when it's time to cast your vote. We'll discuss what plans the candidates have laid out to tackle, the economy, taxes, student debt, and the cost of health care. Today, we'll start with inflation. We went to Bryant Park in New York City and caught some people on a coffee or lunch break. They're planning to vote in the upcoming election. So we asked them how they're feeling about the economy and prices going into November.
I'm worried about the power of the dollar and how far my hard work in my 20s will allow me to have a happier life later on in life. I would love to see taxes come down, inflation to come down, housing prices to be more in line with how much people are making.
Why is inflation the central issue for voters in the 2024 election?
The price of grocery has gone up a lot. In my neighborhood, four years ago, five years ago, we used to buy like a dozen eggs for a dollar. Now it's like five dollars. Everything is so expensive.
The inflation rate has come down, but Americans are still feeling the pinch. Both candidates have talked about it.
We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America's families. We will rapidly drive prices down and make America affordable again.
To help us better understand their economic policies and how they plan to tackle inflation, let's bring in Greg Ip. He's The Wall Street Journal's chief economics commentator. Greg, why has inflation been such a hot topic of discussion since the start of the election season?
If you ask people what bothers them most about the economy right now, indeed, what bothers them most, period, they'll often say it's inflation. And it's really not a surprise why. Inflation reached a peak of 9% a few years ago, and it's come down from that, but it's still high. And even though the rate of increase in prices has slowed, prices are still dramatically higher by around 20% than when Biden took office in early 2021. And people still feel it. They go to the grocery store, they go to the restaurant, prices are much, much higher than they remember them being for a very long time.
What caused the rate of inflation to come down so much from the recent peak?
Well, you have to go all the way back to 2020 and 2021 to ask what caused inflation to go up so much in the first place. And it was really like the old story goes, supply and demand. So we had a situation where supply was really constrained by the unusual patterns of demand that followed the pandemic. Plus, millions of people left the labor force because they retired or they were worried about the virus.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:24
2
Why is inflation the central issue for voters in the 2024 election?
2:24–8:54
3
How are everyday Americans describing the impact of rising prices?
8:54–15:04
4
What caused the recent surge and subsequent decline in inflation?
15:04–17:21
Speakers
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