Hey there listeners, before we get started, I wanted to give you a heads up that we launched a new video series here at 538 called the United

Stats of America. Get it? Anyway, if you want to check out this new series, search for 538 on YouTube, and you'll see the latest video called

Do Americans Like Talking Politics at the Thanksgiving Table? Essentially, we went out into the world and asked people to guess what other

Americans think about all things fall and Thanksgiving related, and we made a video for you. It's fun, I had fun doing it, and lots of people here at

538 contributed, so go check it out, you can search for 538 on YouTube, or you can find it on my Twitter account. So go check it out.

Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast. I'm Gaelin Drew. Last week, the consumer price index showed prices in October rising 6.2% from a year earlier, the fastest rise in 30 years.

Americans are taking note in its created a political conundrum for the Biden administration. On one hand, Americans have trillions in excess savings from the pandemic and

federal stimulus packages, and a record high 74% see a good time to find a job according to Gaelin. But views of the overall economy are pessimistic. In a recent ABC news Washington Post

poll, 70% of Americans rated the economy negatively, and many view President Biden as responsible. About half of respondents blame Biden for rising prices, and his approval on the economy was 16 points under water.

Today, we're going to talk to economist Kenneth Rogos about why we're experiencing this period of inflation, and how Americans are thinking about it.

We've also got a good or bad use of polling of sorts, we're speaking with the director of a well-known poll who suggested that maybe pollsters should stop conducting election polling altogether.

So the rest of the politics team here at 538 is out of retreat today, which means you're stuck with just me, but as it heads up, Nate is finally officially back from Las Vegas.

We're going to dig into the mailbag later this week and answer your questions about all things elections and politics.

And I'm sure that Nate will be happy to tell you which Vegas hotel has the best buffet if you ask. So send all of your burning questions over to podcasts at 538.com or flag me down on Twitter at Gaelin Dhruk.

But let's begin with our good or bad use of polling example.

Following the elections in New Jersey and Virginia, director of the New Jersey-based Monmouth University poll, Patrick Murray, wrote an article for NJ.com titled,

I blew it, maybe it's time to get rid of election polls.

Essentially, he said that the a-rated Monmouth poll was significantly off in the New Jersey governor's race and had been off in other recent elections.

As a result, he suggested that maybe pollsters should stop doing election polling altogether and just stick to issue polling.

So today's good or bad use of polling is essentially the argument to not poll.

And here with me to discuss is Patrick Murray, the author of the article and director of the Monmouth poll. Welcome back to the show Patrick.

It's good to be with you Gaelin.

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