We Evaluate An Article On MSNOW About the Economy and Trump
A short forensic breakdown of how our dumbest media manufactures economic fairy tales — and why politicians lie about prices even when they know better.
We Evaluate An Article On MSNOW About the Economy and Trump
A short forensic breakdown of how our dumbest media manufactures economic fairy tales — and why politicians lie about prices even when they know better.
By Jim Reynolds | www.reynolds.com
I. Quick Summary of the Article (and Who Wrote It)
Steve Benen — Rachel Maddow’s longtime producer, chief writer, and brand enforcer — published an MSNOW piece claiming that Trump is “gaslighting” the public by saying prices are coming down.
You can read the article here:
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/on-affordability-and-consumer-costs-trump-goes-all-in-on-an-alternate-reality
Benen frames Trump as lying, insists Americans “just need a wallet” (not data), and treats his own personal perceptions as national economic fact.
The article contains:
• No inflation charts,
• No CPI data,
• No sector breakdowns,
• No explanation of how prices move,
• No structural context whatsoever.
It’s Maddow-style narrative work wearing the trench coat of economics.
⸻
II. Point-by-Point Takedown
1. ❌ Premise With No Evidence
Benen asserts that Trump has “failed on affordability,” but cites zero numbers.
No CPI.
No grocery index.
No wage comparisons.
Nothing.
He begins by declaring reality rather than demonstrating it, a hallmark of Maddow-blog commentary.
Bob:
“If you open with the verdict and skip the trial, don’t call it journalism. Call it improv.”
⸻
2. ❌ Emotional Substitution for Data
His centerpiece argument is this:
“No one needs a fact-check; they just need a wallet.”
Translation: I don’t have any statistical proof, so let me outsource it to your mood.
When writers have evidence, they cite it.
When they don’t, they appeal to vibes.
⸻
3. ❌ Misrepresenting What Trump Said
Trump said prices are coming down — i.e., the rate is decelerating and certain categories (energy, eggs, freight inputs) have declined.
Benen deliberately conflates:
• Direction of change (downward trend) with
• Absolute price levels (still elevated overall).
This is Narrative Math 101:
When numbers hurt your argument, switch to feelings.
When numbers help your argument, weaponize charts.
⸻
4. ❌ Claiming to Speak for “the Public” Without Proof
Benen writes:
“The public knows he’s failing.”
How does he know?
• No polling
• No consumer sentiment data
• No longitudinal confidence studies
• No demographics
This is the MSNBC trick:
Use “the public” as a sock puppet for the writer’s personal belief.
⸻
5. ❌ Contradictory Framing
Trump is simultaneously portrayed as:
• A master gaslighter,
• A “prolific liar,”
• Completely incompetent,
• And so transparently delusional that “no one” believes him.
These claims cannot coexist.
It’s emotional venting, not analysis.
⸻
6. ❌ Zero Engagement With Actual Affordability Drivers
Benen never mentions:
• Energy inputs
• Freight normalization
• Retail margin stickiness
• Housing supply shortage
• Wage-price feedback loops
• Labor participation trends
• Commodity cycles
Because the point isn’t to explain the economy — it’s to declare Trump wrong because MSNBC needs Trump to be wrong.
Bob:
“If the article were any lighter on substance, it would float off the page.”
⸻
7. ❌ The Magical Counterfactual President Trick
MSNBC treats economic conditions as if they sprang into existence the moment Trump took office, ignoring the structural inertia from 2021–2024.
Inflation is not a light switch. It’s a lagging-cycle beast that continues long after the policies that caused it.
Benen pretends otherwise, because acknowledging inheritance ruins the narrative arc.
⸻
III. The Reality of Inflation
Inflation is a ratchet, not a rubber band.
We’ve written this before, and it remains universally true:
• Prices rarely go back to prior levels after an inflation shock.
• Inflation increases costs permanently unless deflation occurs — and deflation is dangerous, rare, and politically unacceptable.
• Even when categories drop (eggs, gas, shipping, used cars), the aggregate price level almost never resets.
• Politicians pretend otherwise because promising “I will lower prices” is easier than telling voters the economic truth.
So Trump saying “Prices will come down” is not economically accurate.
It’s reassurance, not reality.
Biden did the same.
Obama did the same.
Every president since FDR has done the same when backed into an inflation corner.
The truth is simple and universal:
Once prices rise, they tend to stay there.
Some categories fall; the total does not.
Trump’s statement is politically comforting, but economically false.
He’s giving his audience emotional relief, not structural analysis.
Bob:
“Politicians know inflation is a one-way ratchet. But they also know voters prefer bedtime stories. So they tell you prices will ‘come down’ and hope you don’t ask ‘When?’ or ‘How?’ or ‘Name a time in the last 70 years.’”
Bob insists on one more punch: “You can’t run an economy on feelings — unless you’re MSNOW, in which case feelings are the whole GDP.”
BONUS: Why Politicians Never Tell the Truth About Prices
Here’s the secret every politician knows but will never say out loud: prices don’t come down. Not in general. Not across the whole economy. Not in any way you’ll actually feel in your daily life.
Inflation is a ratchet, not a rubber band. Once it clicks forward, it doesn’t politely rewind. A few categories can dip—gasoline, eggs, freight costs—but the total price level stays right where it climbed. Everyone in Washington knows this. They just hope you don’t.
So why don’t politicians tell the truth?
Because the truth is unmarketable. Imagine Trump — or anyone — stepping to the podium and saying:
“Folks, prices will probably never return to where they were. The best we can do is slow the rate of increase.”
Voters would trample each other sprinting for the exits.
And the opponent? They’d fillet him on live TV:
“Donald Trump says prices will NEVER come down. We strongly disagree!”
And that’s checkmate.
Because politics isn’t about explaining second derivatives (“the rate of change is decelerating”). That’s not a rally line — that’s a cure for insomnia. Politics is about emotion, direction, and blame assignment.
No candidate can say:
- “Inflation is permanent.”
- “You won’t get those prices back.”
- “Our goal is reduction in slope, not reversal in level.”
The first is depressing,
the second is unforgivable,
the third sounds like you’re teaching AP Calculus at a funeral.
So instead they all grab the same magic phrase:
“Prices will come down.”
They know it’s not true. You suspect it’s not true. Economists would laugh them out of the room. But voters want hope, not thermodynamics. And politicians want votes, not Nobel Prizes.
Bob: “Telling the truth about inflation is like telling a kid the circus is just tired horses in makeup. No one wants the reality. They want the magic trick. So the politicians keep juggling numbers while the rest of us clean up the sawdust.”
And that’s why they lie — not out of malice, but out of survival. In politics, honesty about prices is the one product no one can afford.
Truthful but depressing.