Andy powder is the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, Chairman of 2ndVote Value Investments, Inc., and a Senior Fellow at America First Policy Institute.
Joe BidenThe US government has consistently lied to the American people about the economy.
But none of these lies come close to their ridiculous statements inflation.
The fast rising prices plague American families?
Apparently they are either “highly unlikely”, “transient”, “temporary”, slowing down and/or peaking.
Inflation appeared to be a “high-class problem,” according to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
He flippantly retweeted a Harvard economist who claimed that inflation was only a problem for the rich, unaware that the poor suffer most when prices rise.
They said inflation was caused by COVID or meat packers or Putin or oil companies.
Anyway… the numbers are ‘outdated’ anyway, so just ignore them.
These messages were reinforced by Press Secretary Jen Psaki and, of course, the President himself.
“The overwhelming consensus is that it’s going to come up a little and then come back down,” Biden assured us all in June 2021.
The rapidly rising prices plaguing American families? Apparently they are either “highly unlikely”, “transient”, “temporary”, slowing down and/or peaking
“We’re seeing some inflation, but I don’t think it will last,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen shrugged last summer. “I personally believe that these represent temporary factors.”
Back in the real world, we are experiencing the highest inflation in 40 years and the economy is on the brink of recession.
The Americans know that.
You literally have to have slept for most of the last 18 months not to know that.
To prove my point, Biden stated just last week that “my economic plan is moving this country in a better direction.”
He said this (or rather he read it) with a straight face.
Back to reality – we are experiencing the highest rate of inflation since December 1981, when we were still suffering from the catastrophic mismanagement of the Jimmy Carter administration.
On Dec. 10, Biden said the inflationary crisis had reached its “peak.”
“I think you’re going to see that changing sooner, faster and faster than people think,” he told reporters.
At that time, inflation was still 6.8 percent.
Annual inflation is now 9.1 percent, which means if you’re making the same amount of money as you were 12 months ago, you’ve taken a 9.1 percent pay cut over the past year thanks to Joe Biden.
Bidenflation cost the average American household $718 in June alone and will cost the same family over $8,600 next year even if prices stop rising at all (which they won’t).
Knowing the June numbers were going to be bad, the Biden administration downplayed them before they were even released, snidely declaring that they were “backward-looking” and “outdated.”
It was a stupid statement.
Of course, the numbers are backwards. Business has to report results before the government can report on them.
Otherwise these are forecasts.
!['The overwhelming consensus is [inflation] will come up a bit and then go back down,” Biden assured us all in June 2021](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/07/19/13/60419125-11025383-image-a-12_1658233207520.jpg)
‘The overwhelming consensus is [inflation] will come up a bit and then go back down,” Biden assured us all in June 2021
I bet there’s an economic adviser or two in the White House who knows that.
As for forecasts, the government also claimed that we should “expect these high prices to ease in the coming months”.
Maintaining the government’s record for accurate forecasts, we learned two days later that wholesale inflation, a precursor to consumer inflation, also rose at an accelerated pace of 11.3 percent in June, well above expert forecasts of 10.7 percent and the fastest pace since hitting a record high of 11.6 percent in March.
Over time, these wholesale prices affect retail prices.
Again, I’m guessing someone in the White House actually knows this.
Getting back to reality, inflation will rebound a bit, but it hasn’t peaked yet for one painfully simple reason: The Biden administration has no policies that would meaningfully slow it down — direct interventions, for example, to Encouraging businesses to increase the supply of goods, or a new impetus for domestic power generation to drive down gas prices.
On the contrary, Biden’s economic policies got us into this mess. Now he’s doing exactly nothing to get us out of this. And we all pay the price.
Yes, there are factors beyond our control that have contributed to inflation dynamics.
The pandemic paralyzed production and choked off the flow of goods – supply was restricted. But then Biden made it worse — much worse.
The data doesn’t lie.
Inflation skyrocketed in March 2021, along with that administration’s $1.9 trillion in utterly unnecessary “aid spending” on a pandemic that was by all accounts already over.
The result was that too much money was chasing too few goods – and prices rose as a result.
A number of prominent liberal economists, including Larry Summers — a Harvard economist who served as Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and headed the National Economic Council under Barack Obama — warned that Biden’s spending spree would have dire consequences for the economy in the form of runaway inflation.
Back to reality – we are experiencing the highest rate of inflation since December 1981, when we were still suffering from the catastrophic mismanagement of the Jimmy Carter administration
Biden ignored their sage advice and instead relied on the advice of far-left ideologues and toadyats who told him we had entered a new era where the laws of economics suddenly no longer applied.
They called it Modern Monetary Theory.
It was all the rage until it wasn’t anymore. Apparently there is no government sponsored magic money tree.
who knew
In the face of overwhelming evidence that his free-spending policies have plunged the American economy into stagflation, the Biden White House has recently veered into outright denial and economic fantasies.
In his most recent statement on the ongoing inflationary crisis, Biden said he would “continue to work with the US oil and gas industry to increase production responsibly” — which is a sham.
You can’t continue what you never did and what your political base won’t let you do.
Biden declared war on the domestic energy supply before taking office and has done everything to halt American oil and gas production, canceling pipelines, revoking federal drilling permits, closing off millions of acres of land that could yield billions of barrels of oil, and pressured banks not to provide the credit needed to advance exploration and production.
The war in Ukraine has taken a bite out of the global oil supply, but Biden again doubled down on lies and misrepresentations.
Immediately after pledging to increase oil and gas production, Biden attacked, accusing domestic oil companies of price-gouging.
Given that statement, one would assume that Biden is unaware that oil is a global commodity priced in the world market, and that his own anti-US fossil fuel campaign was a major contributor to the high prices at the pump .
But it’s hard to embrace that level of ignorance when the Biden administration itself sells the oil it releases from strategic energy reserves at the same supposedly “price-boosting” market price that the oil companies are charging.
Again, why do you believe anything these people say?
Worst of all, Biden and his congressional Democrat allies are once again attempting to increase federal spending as a proposed remedy for the inflation that exacerbated his excessive federal spending in the first place.
Curiously, they are doing so at the same time that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to curb consumption and tame inflation, albeit too late and too slowly. At least the Fed is doing something.
Biden is simply following the Democrat mantra — use government to create a problem and suggest that the solution to the problem is, well, more government.
Will we still suffer an economic hangover from the Biden administration in late 2025, or even into 2026?
It’s too early to tell.
However, we can be pretty sure that there is no light at the end of this tunnel yet.
The Biden administration has no political solution to fight inflation because the Biden administration cannot face reality politically.
With an approval rating of a pitiful 38 percent, he certainly cannot afford to insult his base with free-market solutions.
But at this point, the hard-working folks suffering from Biden’s incompetence know damn well that the economy is in bad shape, no matter what he tells them.
And we all pay the price.
