On June 22, 2021, Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, reacted to a worrisome increase in the Consumer Price Index of 5.4%, year-over-year. “Inflation,” he solemnly noted to the scribbling classes, “is transitory”. Nothing to worry about, folks. His take was swiftly parroted by others in the Biden Administration and throughout the legacy media, eager to downplay any problem encountered by their creature, the President of the United States. The average price of a gallon of regular gas was $3.07
On November 30, 2021after noting that the CPI had risen to 6.8% year-over-year, Chairman Powell reluctantly admitted that inflation no longer seemed so “temporary.” In fact it was expected to remain elevated throughout 2022. He also announced that the Fed would begin to take measures including raising interest rates to curb further acceleration. For those who care, the 6.8% CPI increase was the highest in 39 years. On average, gas was $3.39 a gallon.
In January, 2022 the CPI increase was 7.5% and the Fed was contemplating six interest hikes of half a percent during the year. Gasoline was $3.33 a gallon – down six cents from November but still $1.03 more than a year previously. By February 23 it was $3.54 and the CPI had risen to 7.9% year-over-year.
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and things got crazier. By mid-March,2022, the CPI had risen to 8.5%, the worst since 1981; gas was an average of $4.25 a gallon.
Alarm bells slowly began to ring in the White House. It finally dawned on this Administration’s puppeteers that the hoi poloi out there in smelly WalMartLand might swallow a lot, but when confronted by this level of fuel prices and the rapid rise of other consumer items, they might choose to believe their own eyes rather than the dissembling of their political betters. So rather than fix the problem, they decided to fix the blame.
At first they blamed Donald Trump, a gambit so risible it took less than a day to sputter out. They blamed “greedy oil companies” of course, and were greeted with hoots of derision by Americans who knew better. “Greedy transportation companies” got a look-in. They blamed meat packers, truck drivers, port officials and the governor of Texas. They came up with the idea that since Vladimir Putin is a evil git, he may as well be blamed for our inflation and high gas prices as well. Hence, “Putin Price Hikes.”
Sorry Jen. Sorry, Ron. Sorry, whoever’s standing in for Joe. It ain’t really Vlad. He may be responsible for a lot of slaughter. He may be a war criminal. But responsible for our current economic pickle he’s not. While we’re at it, neither is the owner of the neighborhood gas stand.
They aren’t the one who tried to drown the country in newly-printed cash while stifling the retail economy with limitations, closings, quarantines and the like. They’re not the one who tried to smother US oil exploration and production with a giant pillow stuffed with regulations, environmental impact studies and denied permits. Nor the one who, in a 2020 Democrat Primary debate, said “”No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more drilling including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.” And whose officials and Congressional cronies urge financial institutions to “de-finance” traditional energy companies. That was you.
The good news is, this administration – and its supporters – got exactly the world it said they wanted. They wanted to eliminate fossil fuels in twelve years, before the world ended. They, and we, now see a tiny intimation of what that world will be like.
The Biden administration now has a golden opportunity to embrace that which it has created. Stop trying to blame anyone else, Joe. You made this situation with your creation of the crazy “Green New Deal” and fossil fuel hysteria. With your COVID closures, your decision to carpet-bomb the country with money borrowed from our grandchildren, with foreign policy pronouncements so bizarre that Vlad the Terrible probably thought he could start a major war in Europe without you even noticing. And God knows, you tried your best not to…
So take credit for what your actions have brought about, Joe. Revel in the chaos; shout from the roof of the White House that this is what you had in mind from the start. Call a press conference and tick off your accomplishments in lowering the working class’ standard of living, shredding city dwellers’ personal security and imperiling a world threatened by a tyrant through feckless indecision and public debate with yourself over what economic sanctions are supposed to accomplish. Remind people that these are the things you-and the party that winds you up in the morning worked hard to get. You should be proud and happy that they are coming to pass. Go on, share your joy.
Believe me, the American people will know exactly what to think about that.
And exactly what to do about it.
