The 2024 election was, to some extent, a referendum on inflation. Voters were mad about higher prices, and they vented their wrath on the Democrats.
Was that fair?
USA TODAY asked economists to ascribe blame for the historic run of inflation, which reached a 40-year peak in mid-2022. Inflation has cooled since then, to an annual rate of 2.6% in October. But prices are higher for good: about 21.4% higher since February 2020, according to an analysis by the personal finance site Bankrate.
Exit polls suggest inflation loomed large in Donald Trump’s triumph at the polls. More than two-thirds of voters said the economy was in bad shape, an ABC News exit poll found. In a CBS News exit poll, three-quarters of voters said inflation was a hardship.
“Most Americans haven’t really experienced high inflation,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “This was the first time they got a taste of it, and it was very, very bitter.”
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But is the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration to blame?
Yes, the economists said, but only to a degree. Of the seven economists who spoke to USA TODAY, most cited the global pandemic, not Biden, as the primary cause of the nation’s inflation crisis.
‘We were in a scary place’
The pandemic triggered a brief recession, followed by a round of global inflation. The Trump and Biden administrations both responded to the downturn with multiple rounds of stimulus…
