[Source: Reuters]

For six months or so in 2021, as vaccines paved an economic reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic and fresh waves of federal benefits flowed to household bank accounts, President Joe Biden’s administration reaped the benefit with an approval rating pinned above 50%.

It has been mired around 40% ever since, with the scarring impact of subsequently high inflation still cited by voters as a major issue even though the pace of price increases has declined, wages and the economy continue to grow, and the jobless rate remains low.

As good as the economy might seem across most major indicators, inflation that peaked at 9% more than two years ago has been hard for Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to outrun, and given former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump a cudgel that remains effective on the eve of the election even as inflation has dwindled to 2.4%.

It’s an area where Trump continues to hold a polling edge despite Harris’ pledges to address issues like high housing costs or the “price gouging” she cites as a cause of high prices in the grocery aisle.

In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 68% of respondents in seven swing states said the cost of living was “on the wrong track,” and 61% said the same about the economy. Half said Trump had “a better plan, policy or approach” to managing the economy compared with 37% for Harris, while on inflation Trump was favored 47% to 34%.In-person voting concludes on Tuesday, with polls showing an overall tight race between Harris and Trump nationally and in the battleground states seen as determining the outcome.

The Biden administration and later the Harris campaign recognized early on the problem inflation posed.

Biden named one of his signature pieces of legislation the “Inflation Reduction Act,” though much of it focused on subsidies for electric vehicles and clean energy. As rising rent and housing prices emerged as a particularly acute issue, they launched proposals that included capping rent increases, tax incentives for affordable housing construction, and downpayment help for first-time home buyers.

What they didn’t publicize so much is how sticky a problem it would be for the households living through it.

Attitudes improved somewhat as inflation began to ease last year, but the change only went so far.