PRICES

According to an NBC poll conducted just before the 2024 elections, "...inflation and the cost of living was one of the issues that mattered most, far above threats to democracy, abortion or healthcare."

Which means many of the winners of the 2024 elections were likely determined by who independent voters, swing voters, and young voters believed was responsible for the worst inflation in 40 years.

But it's not that simple.

According to the macro numbers, Democrats should have won across-the-board, up and down the ballot. But they didn't. They didn't, because they failed to understand the difference between macro and kitchen-table economics.

The unemployment numbers were great during Biden's term. The economic growth numbers were great during Biden's term. And the inflation that peaked at 9.1 percent for one month was, according to the Federal Reserve, over before the election. What wasn't over were the prices consumers were still paying, many of which had increased far more than the macro numbers implied. Those numbers - the kitchen table numbers voters cared about- are what Democrats ignored. 

So Democrats lost.

Of course, the kitchen-table numbers are not independent of the macro numbers. The focus on the macro idea of "inflation" is what brought out the price gougers who were responsible for the terrible kitchen-table numbers.

All of which means Democrats failed in two ways. They failed to show who was actually responsible for the macro inflation. And they failed to address kitchen-table economics by not making price gouging a cornerstone of the elections. 

And so we have The Price of Cheese: How Too Much Stupidity, Not Too Much Money, Caused An Inflation by Dennis Paulaha, a Ph.D. economist.