Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, May 09, 2025

Biden knocks Wall Street, defends economic plans amid recession fears

Biden knocks Wall Street, defends economic plans amid recession fears

U.S. President Joe Biden blasted Wall Street and Republicans, while making a full-throated defense of his economic plans to thousands of union members in Philadelphia on Tuesday, as he seeks to improve dismal approval ratings amid high inflation and fears of recession.
Often raising his voice to a yell, Biden vowed to continue to pursue billionaires and corporations that his administration says underpay billions of dollars in taxes each year, and to pursue economic policies aimed at shrinking U.S. inequality.

"Our work isn't done," Biden said. "America still has a choice to make - a choice between a government by the few for the few or a government for all of us, democracy for all of us, an economy where all of us have a fair shot and a chance to earn our place in the economy."

Worries that a hawkish Federal Reserve will hurt U.S. growth as it attempts to tame inflation helped drive the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) into a "bear market" on Monday, which could beckon a recession, some analysts say.

Wall Street swung between green and red Tuesday after a smaller-than-expected jump in core producer prices for May.

Corporate executives including JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon have warned in recent weeks that they see an economic storm brewing in the United States, as high inflation bites and the Fed balances curbing spending while avoiding recession.

Biden appeared to take aim at those concerns Tuesday.

"Wall Street didn't build this country, the middle class built this country," Biden said, adding that if investment bankers went on strike, not much would happen to the U.S. economy.

Republicans blame Democrat's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan of economic stimulus measures for fueling inflation that has reached 40-year highs.

"Soaring inflation, record gas prices, and a baby formula shortage are only a few of the crises he’s dealt" Pennsylvania families, Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel said in a statement ahead of Biden's speech.

Biden and Democrats point to record-low unemployment, small business startups and wage growth, particularly for low-income workers disproportionately hurt by pandemic shutdowns, as signs the U.S. economy is strong.

"I don’t want to hear any more of these lies about reckless spending. We are changing people's lives," he said, saying multiple times that he was cutting deficits in contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump.

The Congressional Budget Office last month forecast that the U.S. budget deficit would shrink dramatically to $1.036 trillion for fiscal year 2022 from $2.775 trillion last year given a recovery-fueled surge in revenues and lower outlays.

Biden spoke in front of about 2,000 union members, leaders and state and local officials at the AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention, which is held every four years, and where labor leaders chart strategy. The labor federation comprises 57 affiliated unions and 12.5 million workers.

He recalled food lines and job losses under Trump and sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and noted record low unemployment.

"Talk about a contrast. Ordinary people waiting in line for an hour for a box of food," while presidential policies created more billionaires than ever in American history, he said.

Biden, hailed as a pro-union president by labor leaders, has continued to throw his support behind unions and collective bargaining, and the White House is counting on unions to help Democrats win in the November midterms.

He called on union members to throw their support behind John Fetterman the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate, and Stacey Abrams, who is running for governor in Georgia.

Support from unions was key to Biden's win in key swing states in the 2020 election. Biden won 57% of union households nationwide compared with 40% for Trump, according to Edison Research.

He has ousted government officials whom unions deemed hostile to labor, reversed Trump-era rules that weakened worker protections and established a White House labor task force to reverse a decades-long decline in union membership.

More recently, Biden met with a new generation of union organizers at the White House, warned major businesses that their workforces would seek to unionize with his support and has supported a push on Capitol Hill that allows for congressional staffers to unionize.

However only 10.3% of the U.S. workforce was represented by a union in 2021, down from more than 30% in the 1950s, the White House said in February. The numbers are even lower for private-sector employees, where union membership has fallen to 6.1% in 2021 from 16.8% in 1983.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Historic Papal Conclave Set to Commence in Rome
Huge Copper, Gold, and Silver Discovery in Argentina and Chile — But the Profits Go Abroad
Prince Harry is pleading for reconciliation — but the royals are just as sick of his victimhood as everyone else
The Road to Freedom: She Protested Putin, Escaped House Arrest, and Survived a 2,800-Kilometer Journey
OpenAI's Flip-Flop: No Longer Going Commercial, Back to Nonprofit, After Musk Lawsuit and Backlash
“Trump Supporter” Aims to Bring a MAGA-Style Shift to Romania
First From China: Zhao Xintong Wins the Snooker World Championship
Nvidia Faces Billion-Dollar Losses – Warns: China Is on Its Way to Becoming an AI Superpower
Trump Rules Out Third Term, Names JD Vance and Marco Rubio as Potential Successors
Mexico Says ‘No’ to U.S. Troops: President Sheinbaum Rejects Trump’s Offer to Fight Cartels
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Storms the Map, Wrecking the Two-Party Monopoly
DOGE: Reimagining Government Operations with AI
Common Sense Returns to Britain's Legal System: UK Supreme Court Declares a Woman Is… a Woman
Beijing Says U.S. Is ‘Reaching Out’ for Tariff Talks Amid Soaring Trade Tensions
U.K. Court Rejects Prince Harry’s Final Appeal Over Police Security
Prince Harry’s Heartfelt Outburst Rocks the Royal Family
Trump Shares AI-Generated Image of Himself as… Pope, Prompting Outrage Reaction
Transgender Swimmer Secures Five Gold Medals at U.S. Masters Championship
Prince Harry: “I Want Reconciliation with My Family”
Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has now been officially labeled “right-wing extremist” by the federal office for the so-called “protection of the constitution.”
Amazon Launches Satellite Internet Service Amidst Competition with SpaceX
Transformative Changes in Women's Wrestling: The Rise of WWE Superstars
The Rush to the White Gold: Global Investment Surge in Natural Hydrogen Exploration
This is a day in Spain without electricity and internet
Reform UK Surprises in British Elections, Challenging Traditional Two-Party System
180-Year-Old Christian University in South Carolina Announces Closure Due to Unmet $6 Million Fundraising Goal
Brazilian Woman Jailed for Fourteen Years for Writing “You Lost, Idiot” on Statue During Protest
Trump Administration Removes National Security Adviser Mike Waltz Amid Signal Chat Controversy
Dutch Politician Eva Vlaardingerbroek Receives Spyware Threat Alert from Apple
Paramount Board Considers Settlement in Trump’s $20 Billion Lawsuit Over "60 Minutes" Interview
U.S. Economy Shrink in Trump’s First Quarter as Tariff Policy Raises Questions
Deadline Looms for RTS Meter Replacement: Hundreds of Thousands at Risk of Heating Disruption
Sweden Grapples with Deadly Gun Violence: Suspect Arrested After Three Young Men Killed in Uppsala Hair Salon
Walz Reveals Why Harris Chose Him as Her Running Mate and Reflects on Democratic Losses
Spain Restores Power After Unprecedented Nationwide Blackout
Carney Secures Liberal Mandate in Canada’s Federal Election
Death Penalty Sought as Luigi Manion Pleads Not Guilty in CEO Murder Case
President Trump contacts Jeff Bezos after reports of Amazon considering listing tariff surcharges; company clarifies no such plan for main platform
Spain and Portugal Recover from Massive Blackout
Liverpool Clinches Record-Equalling 20th English League Title Under Arne Slot
Singapore Politicians Warn Against Foreign Interference in Election
Driver Ploughs into Vancouver Festival Crowd, Killing Nine
Depression, Fear of Defamation, and a Tragic End: New Details on Virginia Giuffre’s Suicide
“Sharia for UK, Allah Akbar!”
Massive Explosion at Iran's Bandar Abbas Port Linked to Suspicious Chemical Shipments
Incident Reflection: A Harsh Reality Check
Pakistani migrants to Danish man: “ “We have 5 children while you have 1 or 2. In 10 years, there will be more Pakistanis than Danes here.“
Clashes Erupt in London as Tensions Rise Between Indian and Pakistani Communities
Specialized anti-drone weapons deployed among security personnel Ahead of Papal Funeral
How do you fix this culture?
×