- 'Business as usual' for Australia match-winner Carey amid boos
- Israeli jets pound Lebanon after deadly Beirut strike
- Ten Hag bemoans Man Utd's lack of killer instinct in Palace stalemate
- France's Macron appoints new government in shift to right
- Cheika proud of Leicester grit after winning start as boss
- Profligate Man Utd pay price in 0-0 draw at Palace
- Kane, Olise run riot as Bayern thump Bremen
- Diaz fires Liverpool top of Premier League, Man Utd held at Palace
- LIV champion Rahm out of LIV Team semis with severe flu
- Slot surprised by tearful Nunez's moment of magic
- Title rivals Norris, Verstappen on 'cool' front row for Singapore GP
- Biden talks China with 'Quad' leaders in hometown summit
- Juve and Napoli play out goalless draw in early Serie A title tussle
- Alcaraz fears tennis tour grind will 'kill us'
- Carey sparks recovery as Australia thrash England in 2nd ODI
- Leclerc, Sainz lament 'disappointing' Saturday in Singapore
- Bottega Veneta holds investors' aces as Madonna pops into D&G
- Beirut digs for victims at building flattened in Israeli strike
- Verstappen stages protest over 'ridiculous' swearing punishment
- Bayern boss Kompany lauds 'special talent' Olise
- Diaz fires Liverpool top of Premier League, Spurs bounce back
- Heavy fire over Israel-Lebanon border after deadly Beirut strike
- Ramos guides unbeaten Toulouse to Montpellier win despite Hogg scuffle
- Myanmar flood death toll jumps to 384
- Chelsea owners 'happy' with win at West Ham amid rift report
- Kane and Olise run riot as Bayern thump Bremen
- Ramos guides unbeaten Toulouse to Montpellier win
- Norris pips Verstappen to dramatic Singapore pole after Sainz crash
- Carey takes Australia to 270 in 2nd ODI against England after collapse
- Two Hezbollah leaders killed in Israel's Beirut strike
- Hungary Danube waters reach decade high after Storm Boris
- Bagnaia cuts Martin's MotoGP lead with Emilia-Romagna sprint win
- Jackson double fires Chelsea to victory at woeful West Ham
- Fiji beat Japan to lift Pacific Nations Cup
- Kasatkina to face Haddad Maia in Korea Open final
- S.Africa snowfall closes roads, strands motorists overnight
- Lawyers of women alleging Al-Fayed sex abuse receive over 150 new enquiries
- President Museveni's son backs Ugandan strongman for 7th term
- Norris quickest as Verstappen bounces back in Singapore practice
- Wallabies lament All Blacks' fast start
- Germany's Oktoberfest opens under tight security after attacks
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- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli strike kills top commanders
- No place like home: Biden hosts 'Quad' leaders
- One dead, 7 missing as heavy rains trigger floods in central Japan
- Zelensky says no UK, US go-ahead to use long-range missiles
- New Zealand edge Australia 31-28 in Bledisloe Cup thriller
- Japan orders evacuations as heavy rains trigger floods in quake-hit area
- New Zealand pilot freed in Indonesia after 19 months in rebel captivity
- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli air strike kills top commanders
For Biden's battered approval, 'nothing else matters' like inflation
Historically low joblessness is the kind of thing American leaders dream of, but President Joe Biden also has nightmarishly high inflation that supporters and opponents alike believe may cost his Democratic Party dearly.
Biden's popularity has sunk in recent months even as the unemployment rate has ticked progressively lower amid booming job creation, which experts attribute to record-high price increases the US economy has weathered as it recovers from the pandemic.
"Politically speaking, nothing else matters," said Charlie Cook, a longtime political analyst and founder of the Cook Political Report.
Job growth is a traditional metric of presidential success, and the White House has attempted to focus the public's attention on the progress made in the labor market, where new applications for jobless aid are at more than half-century lows and the unemployment rate is almost back to where it was before Covid-19 broke out.
But Cook said the spike in consumer prices to levels not seen since 1981 has undercut those arguments because while some voters may benefit from the strengthening jobs market, everyone experiences higher prices for gasoline, food and other necessities.
Biden's approval ratings are now hovering around 42.2 percent, according to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, and with midterm elections in seven months, even Biden's allies worry that his Democratic party will lose its narrow control of one, or perhaps both, houses of Congress.
"High prices are preventing Americans from feeling the Biden boom," said Will Marshall, president of the center-left Progressive Policy Institute.
- Losing, not gaining, jobs -
Biden took office at a time when unemployment was on a downward trajectory after spiking to 14.7 percent in 2020 as businesses laid off workers en masse after the pandemic arrived on American shores.
Throughout his presidency, it has fallen steadily to hit 3.6 percent last month, a hair above its pre-pandemic level.
But consumer prices have shot up, jumping by 8.5 percent over the 12 months to March, and polls indicate Americans are pointing the finger at Biden.
Nearly two-thirds of voters disapprove of Biden's handling of the economy, according to a poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released late last month, while progressive data firm Navigator Research found more Americans believe the economy is losing jobs than gaining them.
The high inflation rate is a consequence of a collision between global shortages and shipping delays, the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policies and shocks to commodity markets caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine that have sent gas prices soaring.
Another factor is pandemic rescue bills Congress approved under Biden and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump that fattened Americans' wallets and drove them to buy scarce goods.
While economists debate how much of an effect these policies have had on inflation, Marshall acknowledged missteps in Biden's congressional priorities as prices rose last year and his administration was reeling from the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The president won bipartisan support for a $1 trillion overhaul to the nation's infrastructure, but delayed that bill's passage while trying to unite Democratic lawmakers around Build Back Better, his signature proposal to overhaul the country's social services, which ultimately failed.
"I think people mistakenly thought, well, this is a second coming of the New Deal," Marshall told AFP, referring to a 1930s-era Democratic expansion of government in response to the Depression. "I think they overreached."
- Can he come back? -
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as an economist in Republican former president George W. Bush's administration, said Democrats might have been worse off if they passed Build Back Better, because voters would have linked its high price tag to inflation.
"I think they benefited more from its failure than it cost them," said Holtz-Eakin, now the president of the American Action Forum.
Biden's Democrats control Congress, but only by the thinnest majorities -- 12 seats in the House and one vote in the Senate -- which he argued does not give them a mandate to enact major legislation.
"They mistakenly think they have to do something. They don't, they should get out of the way, let the Fed take care of inflation, let the private sector take care of growth," Holtz-Eakin said.
The Federal Reserve is in the process of raising interest rates, and many economists believe the inflation spike will flatten as the year progresses.
But whether it comes soon enough for Biden remains to be seen.
It is common for a president's party to lose ground in the midterm congressional elections, and his two predecessors in the White House were mauled in when their parties lost control of the House -- a fate Cook warned Biden appears on course to meet.
"Are we really going to see a meaningful reduction in inflation between now and the time voting starts between late September and October?" he asked. "I don't think it's realistic at all."
C.Meier--BTB