Following the stunning presidential election victory of Donald Trump on Tusday, the Democrats are playing the blame game. Some are blaming President Joe Biden for refusing to drop out of the race earlier, while others are focusing on Kamala Harris’s negative attacks against Trump that further energized his GOP base.

However, economists are taking a more practical approach by examining the stark numbers that drove voter behavior.

America’s economic story can be distilled into two telling statistics: under Biden, the net worth of the bottom 50% of American households grew by just 8.5% in real terms, while under Trump’s previous term, it soared by 127%. This disparity brings to mind 1980, when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter amid stagflation and economic malaise, and 1992, when Bill Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid” campaign unseated George H.W. Bush despite his strong foreign policy record.

Money talks, and voters just weren’t buying what Harris was selling. ABC News exit polling shows just how bad things got, with only a quarter of Americans saying they’re doing better than four years ago, while 45% are struggling more. That kind of financial pain hasn’t been seen since the Great Recession.

The Democratic establishment’s response – pointing to robust GDP growth, stable unemployment rates, and moderating inflation – echoed similar defenses made by Herbert Hoover in 1932 and Carter in 1980, both of whom argued that their policies would eventually bear fruit. But like their predecessors, they missed the fundamental reality of Americans’ lived experience.

The Biden-Harris administration’s economic missteps became particularly glaring with the passage of the American Rescue Plan’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package in 2021. According to the Independent, economists now attribute 3-4 percentage points of the subsequent inflation surge to this massive cash injection into an already supply-constrained economy. The resulting federal deficit ballooned to 7% of GDP – approximately $1.8 trillion – marking one of the largest peacetime deficits in American history.

Trump’s previous economic success wasn’t merely lucky timing. His 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced corporate tax rates from 35% to 21% while cutting personal tax rates, proved to be an effective stimulus. Business investment and labor force participation both exceeded expectations during his tenure, reminiscent of Reagan’s economic expansion of the 1980s.

Looking ahead, markets have responded positively to Trump’s return, with U.S. shares hitting record highs on Wednesday. His proposed economic agenda, combining tax cuts with increased tariffs, presents both opportunities and challenges.

For Democrats, the lesson is painfully clear and historically consistent: when voters feel economic pain, the incumbent party faces nearly impossible odds. Just as Carter couldn’t survive stagflation and Bush couldn’t overcome a recession, Biden’s successor couldn’t convince voters to ignore their shrinking purchasing power.

The American electorate has consistently shown that when it comes to choosing leaders, their wallets speak louder than any other issue.