United States | Campaign calculus: the customer is sometimes wrong

Voters won’t thank Kamala Harris for the state of the economy

Why voters are down on America’s remarkable economy

People walk outside of  the New York Stock Exchange.
Photograph: Getty Images

Politicians rarely tell voters they are wrong. For Democrats trying to sell America’s economic success, the temptation must be strong. As our special report explains, the country’s economy is one of the strongest in the world. Americans are richer than at the start of President Joe Biden’s term. Yet they struggle to believe it: in weekly polling conducted by YouGov since mid-2021, almost twice as many say the economy is getting worse as say it’s getting better.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Irrational gloominess”

From the October 19th 2024 edition

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