These days, when I tell people that I write about economics, I frequently get one of two follow-up questions.
“When will things go back to normal?”
Or “Why are people so sour on the Biden economy?”
These are different questions, but I think they have the same answer: Things are as normal as they’re going to get. Which is somewhat disappointing — even though, yes, jobs are plentiful and real incomes have grown faster for those at the bottom than for those at the top.
To see why swing voters might still be disappointed and ready for a political change, consider what things looked like to middle- and lower-income folks in January 2021. The world had shut down, but relief programs mitigated the damage, including unemployment benefits generous enough that about 70 percent of recipients were making more than they had by working. Lower-income households had been able to increase…
