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The economy has turned into a symbolic roller coaster in the nearly four years since the covid pandemic was unleashed. Interest rates have soared, pandemic dollars have been soaked up by the public, and the unemployment rate has inched back from the immediate drop. Is the American economy finally leveling off and performing like the juggernaut it was in 2019? According to CNBC contributor and WOR Market Scoreboard host Ron Insana, the economy is very much alive and kicking. He appeared in 710 WOR’s Ron Insana to explain why economists see much more than just a lump of coal in our stockings during the holiday season.
“It is reasonably hunky,” Insana told Berman and Riedel. “Look, the economy is growing around two and a half per cent, inflation has some down a lot, people are still spending money. Consumer spending has slowed down a bit, but… from what I hear from the National Retail Federation, it looks like Christmas spending is going to be up about three or four per cent. That’s a little slower than the last couple of years, but it’s still a reasonably healthy number.”
Insana contends that, other than the cost of food, the economy reflects a leveling off in the rate of inflation. “The single biggest thing that’s problematic, I think, for most people, is the price shock that we had post-pandemic. The rate of inflation has slowed considerably, but prices are still higher overall than they were in 2019… but there’s still elevated food prices… I think that is the single item that has most people a little frosty and a little less confident about the economy than they would be in this type of cycle in other periods past.”
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