Voters Hate Prices, Blame Man Who Promised Prices Would Fall

Americans went to the polls angry about money. Then they voted against the guy in charge of the money. Economics has never been simpler.

,Nearly nine out of 10 voters in the CNBC Voter Poll said the cost of living was a crucial or major factor in their vote for Congress., That's 90 percent of a country agreeing on something. Pizza can't do that.

,64% said Trump's tariff policies hurt the economy in their area. Just 14% said they helped., Fourteen percent. Somewhere, a guy is standing in a Cleveland hardware store, looking at a 40 percent markup on a hammer, and calling it a win.

Trump had a response. ,He said "the price" of oil is to blame. "Not the war, the price.", Brilliant distinction. Like blaming the fire for the smoke, but not the fire.

The war is the detail worth staring at. ,Nearly three out of every four people said the war was a crucial or major factor in their vote for Congress., The Iran war. Gas prices. A country filling up its tank and funding a foreign conflict at the same time, one pump handle at a time.

GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan put it plainly. ,Going into an election with prices that have never been higher is something that garners a lot of frustration from consumers., Never been higher. On Election Day. Incumbents hate that one trick.

The result was a bloodbath. ,Democrats rode a blue wave of historic proportions to flip everything from battleground congressional seats to long-held Republican governorships., Markets will now enjoy a debt limit fight. Bond traders, enjoy your stomach acid.

I'm a technical analyst. I read charts. Here's the chart: ,three out of every four participants rated the economy as "poor" or "not so good," compared with just 2% who called it "excellent.", Two percent. Those people are either billionaires or lying. Probably both.

Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics summed it up. ,"It was all about the economy.", He's right. It always is. Meanwhile your portfolio is still down on a stock you bought because a podcast guy yelled.

The two percent who said excellent should donate their optimism to science. Or at least to the other 98.

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