At New York Magazine Eric Levitz, after a lengthy section on inflation that could effectively be summarized as “hoocoodanode”, has some suggestions for the president to reduce inflation:
- Repeal most (or all) of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
- Relax the Renewable Fuel Standard.
- Allow Medicare reimbursement rates to fall.
- Expand immigration.
and concludes:
It’s substantively important for the president to ease the burdens of rising prices. And it’s politically vital for Biden to demonstrate that he is taking the problem of inflation seriously. Ultimately, however, the primary drivers of contemporary inflation are not subject to Biden’s control. And for now, those forces appear likely to dissipate next year, irrespective of the president’s actions. So, the White House should do what it can to make a difference at the margin. But the foremost imperatives of Biden’s anti-inflation policy should be to “look busy†and “first, do no harm.â€
I found his explanation of #4 pretty amusing. Actually, if you could limit immigration to people receiving salaries in the top quintile of income earners, I would agree with him. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case with most immigrants. The median household income for immigrants is slightly lower than the median household income of all Americans and about 16% of immigrants—significantly higher than for all Americans.
So that suggestion amounts to a restating of the “cat and rat farm” or the belief that even if you lose money on every sale you can make it up in volume.
Messing with Medicare is as bad as messing with Social Security. That a Democrat would suggest it indicates how out of touch the Dims are. Nearly every Presidential campaign I remember (back to Kennedy) the Dims charged the Rips would cancel Social Security. They can’t afford to given the Rips a pass on that.
Talking about inflation, below are some increases in Joe Biden’s economy:
💰 Gas: +49.6%
💰 Sporting Goods: +8.7%
💰 Shoes: +5.2%
💰 Used Vehicles: +26.4%
💰 Natural Gas: +28.1%
💰 Hotels: +25.5%
💰 Electricity: +6.5%
💰 Propane: +34.7%
💰 Fresh Fish: +11%
💰 Computers: +8.4%
💰 Apples: +6.7%
💰 Eggs: +11.6%
I know Biden will try to “play it backward,†like his boss Obama did with Bush, by saying he “inherited†this economy from Trump. Kamala Harris is using this same trick dealing with the border, saying theyâ€inherited†a dysfunctional border and now are trying to put it back together. Somehow she forgot how Biden immediately dismantled Trump’s stay in Mexico policy, agreements made with Central America, completing contracts already made for wall building, etc. – all measures that produced a coherent and better managed border policy than the chaotic one we have today.
In the face of increasing gas prices for Americans, why is Biden doing the following?
“Nov 10, 2021
U.S. Is Already Exporting Oil From Strategic Reserve at Record Pace
Devika Krishna Kumar, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) — If the Biden Administration decides to tap U.S. emergency crude reserves to push down domestic energy prices, it may not help all that much. The supplies may just be exported away like last month.
About 1.6 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a monthly record — was shipped out in October, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler. Three cargoes were loaded onto a supertanker in the U.S. Gulf Coast and are headed to Asia.â€
Arguendo, let’s accept the accuracy of that list. It has several interesting aspects. First, China is only implicated in a handful of the items and not the biggest movers. Those are gas, used vehicles, natural gas, hotels, propane, fresh fish, and eggs. Gas, natural gas, and propane may be affected by Biden’s energy strategy and hoarding may also be involved. Fresh fish and apples are largely imported from Canada. IIRC we don’t actually import that many eggs but those we do are mostly from Europe, Netherlands in particular.
TBH, the thing I am worried about is fertilizer. Its gone vertical in the last month (up 100% yoy in the US, 400%(!) yoy in Europe).
Extreme food inflation or food shortages are a recipe for significant societal turbulence. Northern Hemisphere countries have a couple of months to resolve this.
Is anyone in the White House paying attention?
That’s interesting.
I’m actually driving a fertilizer auger truck to the spreader in the field.
Heard nothing about prices, but have heard “That’s all they’ll let us have today.â€
I’ll ask at work.
BTW, that’s probably the biggest bill farmers pay every year. Fertilizer.
Here it is, Ag chemical giant Mosaic has cornered the market with government blessings.
https://www.agweb.com/news/business/taxes-and-finance/op-ed-american-farmers-face-crippling-prices-hands-fertilizer
Ah, yes, consolidation and cartels. It is almost ALWAYS the case that these things arise with “government blessings” in one way or another.
It should be noted that Russia / China have imposed export bans on fertilizer.
i.e. the article complaints about tariffs crippling foreign competition is out of date because foreign suppliers don’t want to sell (at low prices, and possibly don’t have anything to sell).
A 19% tariff leads to a 200% increase in costs? Something more is going on.
Steve
Environmental regulations that lead to importing things we used to produce ourselves, embargoes by other countries, industry colidation, and the behavior we’d expect from a cartel sound like enough to explain it to me.
This has a good overview of the fertilizer shortage.
https://www.agweek.com/business/agriculture/7265171-China-Ida-and-vaccine-mandates-all-contributing-to-fertilizer-shortage
There’s a lot going on; export bans, natural gas prices, Hurricane Ida, shortage of labor, shortage of trucking capacity, shortage of railroad capacity, possible hoarding behavior on end users.
I’m sure cartels is in there somewhere.