Biden's Economy?

[canpakes]

I love how when gas goes up to $5/gallon it's Putin's fault. Then when it drops 50 cents we're supposed to credit Biden.

I’m pretty sure that the only person here blaming Biden for any increase or decrease in gas prices is you.

[Vēritās]

I think that trying to lay all that stuff on Trump vastly oversimplifies what went on on pre-inflation. The tax cut was largely created by McConnell and McCarthy.

Trump campaigned on promised tax cuts. Republicans gladly credit him for this because it is pretty much the only thing they can say he did that they liked.

in my opinion, lobbying OPEC to slow production during the early years of the pandemic was the right thing to do — otherwise we’d have seen many more bankruptcies among US oil industry companies.

Firstly, I've already stated numerous times the President has little impact on market forces that ultimately shape the economy. But we're living in Ajax's world now, so I'm just playing by his rules. He wants to find reasons why things are bad by blaming a President with a (D) after his name while crediting the guy with an (R) no matter when things happened or when who was in power. For instance, he still babbles on and on about the Leftist effect on the economy because of shutdowns but doesn't even seem to realize those shutdowns happened under Trump and initially with his blessing.

With respect to oil prices, is there anything a President could have done to have softened the blow on this? One would expect an economic genius and masterful businessman like Trump to know how the markets work, right? He should have known the economic blow was only temporary, and it was as the recession ended two months after it started. So why not keep the oil companies in business by buying the oil as reserves? More than 100 oil companies went out of business in 2020 and a dozen refiners closed. It shouldn't take a lot of economic genius to know that bringing all that production back online during a recovery wasn't likely going to happen. GDP skyrocketed to 32% in the third quarter of 2020.

The microchip shortages is a complex issue that has undoubtedly been impacted by China’s approach to COVID.

Again, we're in Ajax's world now. The Buck stops with President.

chip.jpg

Because tariffs work on the demand side, I don’t think it’s clear that the tariffs themselves caused supply reductions.

No, they spurred price increases (inflation) as that is the effect tariffs have on the price of goods.

tariff.jpg

[Vēritās]

I love how when gas goes up to $5/gallon it's Putin's fault. Then when it drops 50 cents we're supposed to credit Biden.

I’m pretty sure that the only person here blaming Biden for any increase or decrease in gas prices is you.

Yeah, I don't see anyone crediting him with the price drop either. I see FOX News constantly trying to mock Biden for trying to take credit but all I see from Biden's tweets are economic updates on how prices are dropping. Biden isn't saying "I did that."

He's just reminding people that things are heading in the right direction with the one issue that has plagued them. What's so horrible about that? At least he isn't flat out lying or making crap up from whole cloth like the previous guy did, all with the fawning praise of Right Wing media.

My favorite lie was when he took office just a few weeks later tried taking credit for low unemployment numbers. When he was criticized for calling those low numbers "fake" just a few months earlier, he basically said yeah they were fake but now they're real.

[Hawkeye]

I’m pretty sure that the only person here blaming Biden for any increase or decrease in gas prices is you.

Yeah, I don't see anyone crediting him with the price drop either. I see FOX News constantly trying to mock Biden for trying to take credit but all I see from Biden's tweets are economic updates on how prices are dropping. Biden isn't saying "I did that."

He's just reminding people that things are heading in the right direction with the one issue that has plagued them. What's so horrible about that? At least he isn't flat out lying or making crap up from whole cloth like the previous guy did, all with the fawning praise of Right Wing media.

My favorite lie was when he took office just a few weeks later tried taking credit for low unemployment numbers. When he was criticized for calling those low numbers "fake" just a few months earlier, he basically said yeah they were fake but now they're real.

Avg gas price has dropped $.70 cents in just six weeks.

This was your post on 6/11/22. That's just 6 weeks ago.

[Vēritās]

Yeah, I don't see anyone crediting him with the price drop either. I see FOX News constantly trying to mock Biden for trying to take credit but all I see from Biden's tweets are economic updates on how prices are dropping. Biden isn't saying "I did that."

He's just reminding people that things are heading in the right direction with the one issue that has plagued them. What's so horrible about that? At least he isn't flat out lying or making crap up from whole cloth like the previous guy did, all with the fawning praise of Right Wing media.

My favorite lie was when he took office just a few weeks later tried taking credit for low unemployment numbers. When he was criticized for calling those low numbers "fake" just a few months earlier, he basically said yeah they were fake but now they're real.

Avg gas price has dropped $.70 cents in just six weeks.

This was your post on 6/11/22. That's just 6 weeks ago.

And?

[Hawkeye]

This was your post on 6/11/22. That's just 6 weeks ago.

And?

Gas going from $2/gallon to $5/gallon then back to $4.20/gallon is not a win. Inflation going from %2 to %9 and then down to %7 is not a win either.

[Res Ipsa]

And?

Gas going from $2/gallon to $5/gallon then back to $4.20/gallon is not a win. Inflation going from %2 to %9 and then down to %7 is not a win either.

Patience, Camille.

[Doctor Steuss]

And?

Gas going from $2/gallon to $5/gallon then back to $4.20/gallon is not a win. Inflation going from %2 to %9 and then down to %7 is not a win either.

Is $4.20 the national average including taxes, etc.? The reason I ask is that gas is currently trading much lower at 3.48/gal.

Incidentally, the September contracts for WTI Crude Oil are about 20% less than contracts were selling for at the June 8 high (currently trading pretty close to what they were back in February).

I'm kind of perplexed about Ethanol though. Trading at about 2.7% lower year-over-year. I'd think that with droughts, demand and whatnot, it'd trend the other way. It's price also seems to lack any form of daily volatility.

[Vēritās]

And?

Gas going from $2/gallon to $5/gallon then back to $4.20/gallon is not a win. Inflation going from %2 to %9 and then down to %7 is not a win either.

First of all inflation wasn't at 2% when Biden passed his first bill. It started its upward trajectory in February 2021. It was 4.2% in April of 2021 well before any of his "policies" took effect.

The latest drop in the numbers is a huge win for anyone looking to prove everything you've been saying is complete BS. If Biden is to blame for it going up within a few weeks of him taking office, he is to blame for it going down half way through his first term. You can't have it both ways. Everything you've been hoping for and predicting isn't panning out. There is no stagflation, there is no hyperinflation, and no $10 gasoline.

[honorentheos]

I think that trying to lay all that stuff on Trump vastly oversimplifies what went on on pre-inflation.

I disagree. One didn't have to be very deeply engaged in the financial economic discussions taking place in 2018-19 before COVID hit to hear the general view that the White House was pushing the economy to overheat in order to maximize short term gains that was going to come to a fiery end at some point. Trump constantly pressured the Fed to keep interest rates as close to zero as possible at a time when rates should have been inching up. The tax cuts were coupled with spending increases that saw money moving fast and white hot into stock buybacks and executive profits rather than investments in the next generation of innovations and new industry. His trade wars hurt workers, his immigration policy was a gimmick with real-world negative consequences for GDP growth, his attacks on regulation and government oversight were a short grab as well. The things people bitch about re: inflation like gas prices are symptomatic issues, not economic fundamentals. That may be where you feel it most, but that's not where the actual problem lies. Not at its core