From the Cutting Room Floor: Inflation Worries Start to Resonate With Democratic Voters
New polling from me this week showed how many voters attribute inflation to President Joe Biden’s economic policies, rather than the natural result of prices rising as consumers resume pre-pandemic activities.
This is bad news for the White House’s narrative on inflation, and potentially hands Republicans a potent weapon to use against Democrats come midterms.
In a little bit of b-roll from that story, let’s focus on the idea that 41 percent of Democrats believe inflation is due to Biden’s policies.
That’s high, especially considering the level of support Biden’s received on plans like infrastructure and stimulus payments from his party’s voters. Biden’s economic policies have typically scored well in Morning Consult polling.
While Democrats in Washington have largely brushed off concerns that inflation might not be temporary, Democratic voters are more worried.
Eighty-two percent of Democrats said they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned about inflation. Republicans were higher at 90 percent.
That’s within the margin of error of Democrats who said they’re very or somewhat concerned about economic inequality (85 percent), one of the party’s biggest economic rallying cries of the last election and in Washington now.
Other big news from last week
The eviction ban ends: The eviction ban expired yesterday despite a last-ditch effort from Democrats to extend it another month. Only 12 percent of the $25 billion approved for rental assistance has been spent, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Robinhood disappoints on its first trading day: Robinhood Markets Inc. shares fell 8 percent after it debuted on the Nasdaq on Thursday, closing the day at $34.82 after opening at $38 per share, even as the wider market ended higher. The company said it netted almost $2 billion from selling about 55 million shares, a third of which were offered directly to its users. Just ahead of its initial public offering, the company disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are investigating its employees’ trading of meme stocks such as GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. earlier this year, and that FINRA is looking for documents related to the registration status of Chief Executive Vlad Tenev and Chief Creative Officer Baiju Bhatt.
Wall Street gets spooked by China: Gensler said Friday that the agency will require new disclosures from Chinese companies before they list on U.S. stock exchanges. Earlier in the week, SEC official Allison Lee said Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges have to disclose the risk that Beijing could interfere in their businesses.
Beijing regulators during the week reportedly held a call seeking to ease the concerns of global investors, Wall Street banks and Chinese financial groups, which were worried about the possibility that additional limits would be applied to Chinese tech companies listed overseas after China imposed harsh restrictions on private education companies. Attendees on the call included executives from BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., a person familiar with the matter.
The Fed holds: The Fed voted to maintain interest rates near zero and keep up its bond-buying program, but officials signaled that a slowdown to the bond-buying program could be coming. In a press conference following the two-day policy meeting, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the economy has made “substantial” progress, but that “there’s still “some ground to cover on the labor market side.”