The positives and the concerns with the economy right now

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – One of the main topics on the minds of voters this election season is the economy.

Despite many people seeming to have a negative view of the economy right now, SDSU economics professor Evert Van Der Sluis says, overall, things are looking pretty good.

“The percentage of prime age Americans that are employed is still very high and inflation is down,” Van Der Sluis said.

Van Der Sluis says inflation is below three cents right now, but people often confuse it with the level of prices.

“So we all know that, you know, prices have gone up a lot compared to before COVID,” Van Der Sluis said. “But at the same time, we sometimes forget that our wages have gone, at least on average, people’s wages have gone up quite a bit also.”

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Van Der Sluis says there are some areas of concern, including in the ag industry.

“The agricultural sector isn’t, at least the crop sector, isn’t doing very well, as I’m sure you know with crop prices going down and being very low already,” Van Der Sluis said.

He also says the value of the U.S. dollar is relatively high right.

“So that makes us less competitive when it comes to our exports,” Van Der Sluis said. “And we’ve seen some of that, even when it comes to agricultural commodities that we’ve been importing some agricultural commodities as opposed to forever we were exporting agricultural goods.”

Another point Van Der Sluis made was that the country is facing high budget deficits.

“You know, we spend more money than is coming in for the US government and sooner or later somebody is going to have to talk about some of these issues,” Van Der Sluis said.