Caifin News October 31st (Editor Huang Junzhi) The final sprint of the U.S. presidential election has begun, with both presidential candidates racking their brains and wooing voters. As American voters make their final decision, former President Trump issued a 'soul question': Americans, is your life better now than it was four years ago?

But he seemed too confident. According to the National Health Statistics Center of the United States, looking back at 2020, the last year of President Trump's term, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans' life expectancy decreased by 1.8 years, with over 0.35 million deaths from the virus.

The U.S. economy also experienced its worst quarter ever, from April to June 2020, with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) equivalent annual rate dropping by 28%. Although there was a remarkable rebound in the following three months, this was mainly due to the federal deficit spending on welfare approved by both parties to help families through the health crisis.

However, data shows that in the last complete quarter of Trump's term, the fourth quarter of 2020, the size of the U.S. economy was still smaller than at the end of 2019.

If the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was unexpected and unfair to Trump, then let's turn the calendar back a year to 2019. But even so, comparing 2019 to 2024, it was still a mixed bag.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Data released on Wednesday shows that economic growth continues to be above trend, nearing the 3% growth rate set by Trump in his first term, which is the success indicator.

After adjusting for inflation, the overall economy of the usa is currently growing by 11.5% compared to the end of 2019, when Trump's output reached its peak. The growth rate is comparable: from the third quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of this year, output adjusted for inflation has grown by 2.66%; using comparable data from before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, from Q3 2018 to Q3 2019, the economy grew by 2.8%.

Inflation

For many Americans, the inflation that started in 2021 and continued affecting until last year is something they have never experienced before. During the peak of this inflation, the speed of price increases is faster than at any time since the 1980s, when the economic downturn weakened the re-election campaign of Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

High prices have always been the core criticism of Trump's campaign, even though inflation itself has decreased, Harris found it difficult to refute this claim. However, the "process of cooling inflation" has not had the usual impact on economic output and employment, a fact seen as a historic victory by policymakers, but seems to have little effect on households.

Revenue

Another point that usa consumers have not noticed is that overall income has kept pace with inflation. However, economic surveys have found that this is not related to people's attitudes toward the economy: high prices are just high prices. If food prices rise by 10%, consumers are not truly concerned whether their wages have increased enough to cover these costs, or even more.

Moreover, averages cannot reflect the experiences of every household.

However, despite the significant turbulence in this process, as federal spending increased income for a period of time and then rising prices reduced purchasing power, by the third quarter of this year, per capita income adjusted for inflation was about 10% higher than the third quarter of 2019.

Unemployment

Perhaps no economic statistics can better demonstrate that the United States has successfully avoided the most serious impact of the epidemic on the economy than the unemployment rate.

As indicated by Federal Reserve officials, before the outbreak of the epidemic, the labor market under the leadership of Trump performed strongly. Later, under Biden's leadership, it also quickly recovered.

Data shows that, if the sharp fluctuations in pandemic years are excluded, the average unemployment rate from 2022 to this year is slightly lower than the average unemployment rate from 2017 to 2019.

Wealth

Not every American invests in the stock market, nor does everyone own a home. But for some groups, Biden has indeed steadily increased household net assets in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Misery Index

Combining the unemployment rate and inflation rate to succinctly describe economic issues has always been a way for politicians to attack opponents, especially in times of high inflation. With the decrease in the inflation rate, the "Misery Index" has roughly returned to the level of most of Trump's time in office.