Experts Explain What the 3 Most Pressing Economic Issues of 2024 Mean for Your Wallet
Written by
Stacy Sare Cohen
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Ashley Barnett
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As we approach the 2024 election, the biggest financial concern for families is inflation, and it’s been a major quandary for three years in a row, according to 41% of people surveyed in Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance poll conducted from April 1, 2024, to April 22, 2024. That’s up six percent from 2023 (35%) and three percent higher than 2022 (32%). Policymakers have their hands full.
Alongside inflation are other major economic problems, such as healthcare, the labor force, the federal deficit, and the surge of artificial intelligence. These all need to be addressed by Congress, and presidential candidates in the upcoming Trump vs. Biden election.
Based on their research findings, experts and affiliates from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) highlight some of the most pressing issues facing the U.S. economy in 2024.
Labor Market Woes
Although it’s been four years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects still “linger” as 500,000 fewer people make up the American workforce, according to Gopi Shah Goda, SIEPR Senior Fellow and Professor of Economics, School of Humanities and Sciences.
Absences as a result of the pandemic are 15% higher, said Goda. Workers suffering from pandemic-related illnesses and disabilities who aren’t searching for employment are also higher than before the pandemic, Goda reports.
Consumer Sentiment Is Ailing
Consumer sentiment is weak even though inflation is starting to subside, unemployment numbers are down, and the GDP is relatively healthy. Consumers are experiencing a disconnect about the outcomes of the election, which needs to be understood as we head toward the vote in November, said Neale Mahoney, George P. Shultz, Fellow at SIEPR and Professor of Economics, School of Humanities and Sciences.
Fiscal Cliff Issue
John Cochrane, SIEPR Senior Fellow and the Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution warns us that the solution to the trillion dollar federal deficit issue should not be on “cuts” and “austerity” or bailouts, industrial policies, transfers, subsidies or higher taxes but on long-term incentives and reform. Reform can accelerate growth, said Cochrane.
“Tax reform such as introducing a consumption tax can raise substantial revenue with less economic damage,” said Cochrane. He suggests social program incentives and reforms that can cut spending and help people more as well as “smart immigration” that can procure more taxpayers.
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