The American people are under economic pressure amid skyrocketing inflation and stagnant wages.
The Fed is trying to tackle the problem by reducing the available money to major financial institutions.
And Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary just sounded the alarm on Capitol Hill about a looming economic crisis for small businesses.
“Bidenomics”
The first two years of Joe Biden’s Presidency have been stained by what many have rightfully dubbed “Bidenflation.”
But President Biden is trying to coin a new term for economic conditions under his leadership, taking to Twitter recently to claim “creating jobs” and “lowering costs” were all simply a product of “Bidenomics.”
We’re creating jobs.
We’re lowering costs.Bidenomics is about growing the economy from the bottom up and middle out, not the top down. pic.twitter.com/zm7wxoDzsb
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 28, 2023
“Today, the U.S. has the highest economic growth rate, leading the world economy since the pandemic, the highest in the world,” Biden told a crowd in Chicago last week. “We created 13.4 million new jobs, more jobs in two years than any President has ever made in four.”
However, Harvard University economics professor Kenneth Rogoff sees things differently.
“Voters are very unhappy about inflation and inflation’s not going away,” Rogoff told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo last week. “And the first part of ‘Bidenomics’ definitely contributed to that inflation. There’s no question about it.”
Now, acclaimed investor, and Shark Tank star, Kevin O’Leary, is speaking out.
“Bidenomics” are slowly killing small businesses
O’Leary doesn’t buy Biden’s claim that he’s making the American economy better.
In an interview on Fox Business’ The Big Money Show, the investor said that while everyone else is pretending that the economy is doing great, he’s living in “the real world” and it doesn’t look good.
O’Leary explained that the Federal Reserve’s unilateral “rapid rate hikes that have occurred, unprecedented speed of these hikes, have put my small businesses” in a bad position.
He made sure to clarify that when he refers to small businesses, he’s referring to the official definition of companies with 5 to 500 employees, which he notes “represents over 60% of our economy.”
O’Leary said that large companies have no problems with accessing financial support during difficult times, but “you can’t say that about small businesses anymore.”
“I’m in the real world talking to CEOs of small companies that are family owned in America – they’re not happy either,” O’Leary pointed out.
The Shark Tank star warned against listening “to the data,” and recommended instead that Americans should pay attention to “reality.”
A difficult environment for small businesses
The federal government’s data does somewhat contradict O’Leary’s perspective.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released their latest figures from the Small Business Optimism Index this week, claiming confidence in the economic forecast amongst small businesses has recently increased by 1.6%, setting a new high for 2023.
Despite the supposed increase in optimism, the NFIB admitted that small businesses – which, as O’Leary pointed out, make up the majority of employers in America – remain concerned about inflation and labor quality in the current market.
Furthermore, nearly one in four small business owners are concerned about these factors, and almost half of them indicated that they’re finding it increasingly difficult to fill open positions.
Prior to their latest report, the NFIB’s communications director, John Thompson, also admitted to Fox News that small business owners “lack optimism about future economic conditions.”
“Small business owners lack optimism about future economic conditions… that create uncertainty, including worker shortages, supply chain issues, inflation and threats of tax increases from Washington,” Thompson claimed.
Needless to say, despite the federal government’s claims, Kevin O’Leary and other small business owners are correct to be concerned about the direction of the economy under Joe Biden.
US Political Daily will keep you updated on any developments to this ongoing story.
