Bernstein: ‘Every reason to believe’ positive economic trends will ‘persist’

The chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Jared Bernstein, said on Sunday that he’s confident recent positive economic trends will continue and that he’s hopeful consumer sentiment will reflect the positive momentum. 

“It takes a while for people’s sentiment to catch up to those new trends, especially given everything they’ve been through. But we have every reason to believe those trends will continue to persist,” Bernstein said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream.

A recent Monmouth University poll showed only 34 percent of Americans approved of President Biden’s handling of inflation, while Americans were split on Biden’s handling of jobs and unemployment, with 47 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving. 

Only 30 percent said they thought the U.S. economy was recovering better than the rest of the world’s economies.  

Asked about this poll and others, Bernstein acknowledged the difficulties Americans have endured over the past few years and said, “Certainly we don’t question people’s experience. They’re the best arbiters of how they’re doing. But I think we also have to understand what folks have gone through,” noting the pandemic, global inflation and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“All of these weigh on consumer confidence and sentiments and at the same time, this president has kept his head down and tried to make sure that families and businesses got to the other side of those crises, intact and in good economic health. And that’s exactly what happened,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein said that real wages have been growing for the past year, and inflation has come down at a faster pace than wage growth, meaning wages were outpacing inflation. He acknowledged that that trend was “relatively new,” but underscored the point that he expects consumer sentiment to eventually reflect the recent change.

Bernstein also touted investments in electric vehicles and battery technology.

“We’re seeing these investments really flourish across the country. So I like where we are. I like the momentum we have. And Bidenomics is going to keep these trends going in the right direction.”