News/Commentary

Bidenomics KO-ing American workers’ 401(k) plans, which see $2.1T in losses – more than 25% on average

October 17, 2022 | | Print Article

The numbers are in and President Joe Biden’s economic policies have not only dramatically reduced the take-home pay for the average American, but with $2.1 trillion in 401(k) losses, economists likened the “unhappy result” to bank robbery.

No matter the language used by the White House to temper the reality of crippling inflation, once called “transitory” by the administration and its surrogates, everyday citizens are feeling the crunch that has begun devastating futures as well. Writing for the New York Post, Heritage Foundation economists Stephen Moore and E.J. Antoni calculated an average loss of 25 percent of retirement savings.

“Average American is losing $34K and everything else on Biden’s watch,” their piece read before even factoring in a nearly $6,000 reduction in “purchasing power” since Biden took office.

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 down six, 18 and six percent respectively, combined with roughly 13 percent losses from inflation and a decrease in bond returns between 20 and 40 percent, the economists found that the average 401(k) with about $135,000 had shrunk to roughly $101,000, translating to 25 percent losses in less than a year.

If you had $300,000 in your 401(k), they detailed, that drop likely added up to more than $75,000 in retirement losses totaling $2.1 trillion across all 401(k)s under Biden’s leadership. That directly impacts the approximately 150 million Americans with some form of retirement savings.

To make matters worse, the loss of purchasing power has seen the ability of Americans to squirrel away funds for the future fall by 83 percent. “Many millions of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck just don’t have the money after paying the inflated bills to save much.”

Defenders of the president attempted to remove his culpability with arguments like, “The president [doesn’t] control the stock market…let’s stop [with] the finger pointing,” and, “Oh my God, the President isn’t causing this. The Fed is. Now newspapers are just as ignorant as half the population.”

However, their denial of the myriad factors the executive branch has influence over to influence the economy was not nearly as profound as Biden’s own when he made the audacious claim while enjoying an ice cream cone that, “Our economy is strong as hell.”

“Inflation is worldwide. It’s worse off everywhere else than it is in the United States,” he attempted to qualify. “So, the problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries, not so much ours. It’s worldwide inflation. It’s consequential.”

As it happened, that ice cream cone was pointed out to be “12.5% more than last year” with the economy “expected to worsen this winter.”

Pension funds have also dropped from $27.8 trillion to $24 trillion over the course of 2022, amounting to 15 percent in losses.

“A year ago, the White House insultingly tweeted out that inflation is merely ‘a high-class problem.’ Wrong,” the economists wrote. “The victims of ever higher prices at the store and the gas pump are not the millionaires, but the little guys–and, in particular, older Americans–whose paychecks and savings accounts get walloped.”

“It’s not exactly the same as a bank robber with a gun stealing a quarter of the money in your bank account,” they concluded. “But at the end of the day, Bidenflation has had the exact same unhappy result.”

Kevin Haggerty
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