Biden unveils his 2024 sales pitch for ‘Bidenomics.’ Is anyone buying?

President Joe Biden’s top economic advisers believe the worst effects of inflation are in the rear-view mirror. They are increasingly confident the economy is heading for a soft-landing, averting a recession. And a growing number of economists are beginning to agree.

There’s just one problem: most Americans are convinced the economy is in bad shape, and they blame the president.

Enter “Bidenomics.”

Searching for a solution to Americans’ negative perception of the economy and a vehicle to take credit for an economy that is increasingly trending in the right direction – all as Biden’s reelection campaign gets underway – the White House is embracing the term.

“Bidenomics” was at the heart of a major economic speech the president delivered Wednesday in Chicago, where he ticked through positive economic indicators and outlined a vision of economic revival.

“I came into office determined to change the economic direction of this country, to move from trickle-down economics,” Biden said at the Old Chicago Main Post Office.

“I didn’t come up with a name,” he said, crediting the news media for inventing the term Bidenomics. “I really didn’t. I now claim it.”

Ahead of the speech, aides described the address as an opportunity for Biden to lay out his economic vision for the future while also articulating how he believes his economic policies have delivered so far.

But it was also an opportunity for Biden to explain what his economic policy was not.

“Folks, let me say as clearly as I can, the trickle-down approach failed the middle class. It failed America, blew up the deficit, increased inequity and weakened our infrastructure,” he said.