The year 2023 has confirmed that Donald Trump is a rough character, vengeful and with such an authoritarian tendency that he has to make it clear that he has not read it My fight from Hitler. We also saw Joe Biden at work, dithering here, stammering his words there, trying to convince us that he should stay in the presidency until he is 87!
Luckily it wasn't just the two of them who were in the news! Throughout the year we had some pleasant surprises and many disappointments, some more notable than others.
As the American economy remains a global powerhouse, it is welcome that it is moving away from the recession that many economists had expected late last year.
Admirable, but pointless for the president
From a high of 9.1% in June 2022, inflation was reduced to a very healthy 3.1%. The unemployment rate has stabilized at 3.7%, which looks like full employment. And with GDP growth of 4.9% (compared to, for example, 1% in the European Union), the United States is the envy of Western economies.
But who doesn't benefit from it? The one who leads the country, Joe Biden, who, as the Gallup company certified yesterday, will begin 2024 with an approval rating of 39%, the worst of all recent presidents seeking re-election.
Approval ratings of US presidents in December of their first term before the presidential election (Source: Gallup)
- Joe Biden 2023: 39%
- Donald Trump 2019: 45%
- Barack Obama 2011: 43%
- George W. Bush 2003: 58%
- Bill Clinton 1995: 51%
- George HW Bush 1991: 51%
- Ronald Reagan 1983: 54%
- Jimmy Carter 1979: 54%
Also note this union mobilization the likes of which we have not seen in years. Compared to 2022 alone, nearly four times more workers participated in strikes, resulting in historic victories. It remains to be seen whether these gains will be contagious as union representation in the private sector remains at a record low of 6%.
Working days lost per month due to strikes – record year 2023. Graphic from data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Ukraine is a double loser
Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive in its war against Russia is one of the great disillusionments of 2023. Almost 500 square kilometers of territory – just a little more than the area of the island of Montreal – has changed hands since the beginning of the year.
The coming fighting will come in the middle of the American presidential election and parallel to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, enough to divert international attention and play into the hands of Vladimir Putin, who has benefited from the West's disinterest from the start. for the Ukrainian cause.
A planet in heat
The winter into which we have officially plunged since the day before yesterday should not make us forget that, according to the European Copernicus Observatory, the months of June to October were the hottest ever recorded in the world.
The year – which in a matter of days is in danger of earning the unenviable title of “hottest in history” – has been littered with extreme weather events: ice storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts tantamount to famine and, at home, a historic wildfire season.
Data from the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
2023, the hottest year in history
- Blue curve = average from 1979 to 2000
- Green curve = average from 1991 to 2020
- Red curve = 2023
Literally and figuratively, we have been hot this year, and at the moment there is nothing to suggest that 2024 – from the American presidential election campaign to the Donald Trump trials, including the inability to fully phase out fossil fuel use at COP28 ban – the year 2024 will be a little more refreshing.