Federal Reserve Board Confirms What We Already Knew

Sensible-minded people long suspected it, and the Federal Reserve Board just confirmed it.

Joe Biden’s economy sucks.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

The Federal Reserve Board on Monday published their Economic-Well Being of U.S. Households for 2022.

The report’s main thesis: Higher prices have hurt many Americans, while their overall financial well-being declined during the past year.

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 “The report indicates that self-reported financial well-being declined in 2022, in part reflecting ongoing concerns about higher prices. In the fourth quarter of 2022, 73 percent of adults reported either doing okay or living comfortably financially, down 5 percentage points from the previous year and among the lowest levels observed since 2016,” according to the Federal Reserve Board.  

“Consistent with these changes in overall financial well-being, fewer adults reported having money left over after paying their expenses. Fifty-four percent of adults said that their budgets had been affected ‘a lot’ by price increases. Parents living with children under age 18, black adults, Hispanic adults, and those with a disability were more likely to say that their budgets had been affected ‘a lot’ by higher prices.”

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Due to a rotten economy, Americans must use less of certain products and/or discontinue using them outright. They also seek less expensive alternatives. They sometimes must delay a major purchase, the report said.

Exactly 51 percent of adults said higher prices have forced them to reduce their savings.   

Among the Federal Reserve Board’s other findings:

• Exactly 73 percent of adults were doing at least okay financially in 2022, down 5 percentage points from 2021.

• The share of adults who said they were worse off financially than a year earlier rose to 35 percent, the highest level since the question was first asked in 2014.

• More adults experienced spending increases than income increases. Exactly 40 percent of adults said their family’s monthly spending increased in 2022 compared with the prior year, while 33 percent said their monthly income increased. While some adults saw both their spending and their income increase, 23 percent of adults said their spending had increased but their income had not.

• The share of adults who said they spent less than their income in the month before the survey fell in 2022 to below the level it was before the pandemic.

Additionally, 63 percent of adults reported they would cover a $400 emergency expense using cash or its equivalent. This was down 5 percentage points from a high in 2021. Exactly 13 percent of adults said they could not pay that expense by any method, which was slightly higher than in the last survey.

The Federal Reserve Board survey included more than 11,000 adult respondents.

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