Former Trump economist Stephen Moore on Sunday said consumer confidence is as weak as ever despite impressive gains in the stock market at the end of last week.
Speaking on “The Cats Roundtable” radio show on WABC 770 AM hosted by John Catsimatidis, Moore said, “It’s a strange universe we’re living in right now, because the investor confidence is as strong as ever, but consumer confidence is as weak as ever.”
He explained that “you have this kind of strange euphoria on Wall Street at the same time you have workers really worried about what’s happening to their paycheck and what’s happening to the ability to pay the bills.”
Moore said there are reports that inflation was almost 6 percent in September, but that wage gains were only 4 percent, which means that workers are actually losing purchasing power.
He stressed that “the Biden administration just hasn’t dealt with this crisis very well” by claiming that inflation woes are only temporary.
"I think there’s a real lack of leadership in the White House when it comes to the economy," he said. "I don’t think they quite know what they’re doing. They’re blaming the problems on the private sector," adding that "people are getting a little sick and tired of [President] Joe Biden always making an excuse, and always passing the buck.”
Moore said the problem is compounded when a White House economic advisor states that inflation only affects rich people, “which is kind of a dumb thing to say because inflation really affects the lowest-income people the most,” adding that “I predict that we’re going to see $5-a-gallon gasoline around the country in the next month or so.”
He said that a major problem in the supply chain crisis is that the number of job openings continue to grow. He pointed out, for example, that there is a shortage of some 200,000 truck drivers in the country, which makes it extremely difficult to make sure all the merchandise arrives to stores in a timely fahion.
Moore said this situation makes him “a little worried about what’s going to happen this Christmas season, [because] if the supply disruptions continue, there’s going to be a rush now for people to buy things in the stores."
Moore also commented on the sharp rise in the value of bitcoins, which he said was based on the increasing likelihood that the financial markets will allow them to be used as a currency.
“It is clear that cryptocurrencies are here to stay,” he said.” It’s risky on the one hand to own a lot of bitcoins. But it also provides a competition for money, which I think is a good thing. It keeps the central bankers honest and prevents them from inflating the currency away, which it seems like what the Biden Administration wants to do.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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