It’s a new year and 2022 may bring some economic reality to the lives of journalists, even if they are dragged kicking and screaming. Late last year, MSNBC’s wealthy and out of touch Stephanie Ruhle snarked that the “dirty little secret” of inflation is that Americans can afford it just fine. Well, on Friday, she reacted to the dismal December jobs report by calling it a “huge miss” and admitting that “the real problem is inflation.”
Still, Ruhle sounds like a cheerleader for the Biden economy. Talking to Mark Zandi of Moody’s, she appeared bewildered at the downbeat outlook of Americans: “How do you rationalize the economy came roaring back, we have the data to show it, yet when you poll the American people, when you poll workers, only a fraction of U.S. citizens are saying they feel like they're coming out ahead?”
Zandi reminded, “Yeah, inflation. You know, inflation is up, 40-year high, the consumer price inflation is up almost seven percent year over year through November.” But even Ruhle gets this. Earlier in the segment, she conceded, “For lots of people, though, the real problem is inflation and even the wages have been up and they were up again in December, lots of those gains get completely wiped out when everything costs more.”
This is a change for Ruhle. On the November 14 Today, she dismissed the notion that inflation is a major concern: “And the dirty little secret here, Willie [Geist], while nobody likes to pay more, on average we have the money to do so.” The media personality, who is estimated to have a net worth of between $4 and $5 million, cautioned that we need to “put this in perspective.”
On Friday, however, Ruhle offered less of the tone deaf happy talk, opening the show by announcing the breaking news: “The December jobs report just came out and it showed only 199,000 jobs were added last month. That is a huge miss. It is less than half of what economists were expecting.”
As for inflation, on January 4 she moved to her current position, telling Nightly News anchor Lester Holt: “The downside across the board, wages aren't moving up as fast as inflation is.” However, she also saw millions leaving their jobs as a “sign of strength.”
Reality setting in for the wealthy host was sponsored by CarShield and Hyundai. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Stephanie Ruhle Reports
1/7/2022
9:01 AM ETSTEPHANIE RUHLE: Hi there, I'm Stephanie Ruhle live at MSNBC headquarters here in snowy New York City. It is Friday, January 7th, and we start this morning with breaking news. The December jobs report just came out and it showed only 199,000 jobs were added last month. That is a huge miss. It is less than half of what economists were expecting, and at the same time the good news is that the unemployment rate dropped to just 3.9 percent. Now, it is important to remember this doesn't capture the full impact the omicron variant may be having on jobs. Think about all the flight cancellations and the school closings that came with the big surge in cases, that didn't even start until mid-December meaning we probably won't see the real impact until next month's report.
That said, the economy right now is as fluid and unpredictable as it has been in decades. We learned earlier this week that a record 4.5 million Americans quit or changed jobs in the month of December, part of the so-called great resignation. And it makes sense. If you can take advantage of high demand from employers, either get a better job or start your own business, great, but if you can't you can be falling behind. For lots of people, though, the real problem is inflation and even the wages have been up and they were up again in December, lots of those gains get completely wiped out when everything costs more. In fact, despite all of the positive news about the economy, only a fraction of workers say they came out ahead in 2021.
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RUHLE: Mark, how do you rationalize the economy came roaring back, we have the data to show it. Yet when you poll the American people, when you poll workers, only a fraction of U.S. citizens are saying they feel like they're coming out ahead.
MARK ZANDI (Moody’s Analytics chief economist): Yeah, inflation. You know, inflation is up, 40-year high, the consumer price inflation is up almost seven percent year over year through November. The wage growth is strong, I think in today's numbers we had something close to five percent wage growth, but that's less than 7% inflation. So they're right, they're not keeping up. Prices for a lot of things that people buy regularly that are very visible like filling up your gasoline tank or buying a pound of ground beef, that's up a lot and people know that and they feel it and they sense it.
