Inflation

Charles, dear, you will believe what you want to believe, unencumbered by facts. You hate Biden. HATE Biden. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE Biden. Fine n' dandy. But don't pretend that your position comes from anywhere but that irrational hatred.

I challenged you to show us where in that article, or anywhere else, Friedman said that inflation is caused by the President. You weaseled.

So there's no point in trying to discuss this with you--you're a hate-blinded intellectual coward.

Friedman makes clear that inflation is driven by the supply of money.  The Federal Reserve controls the money supply.  The President of the United States can replace the entire Fed Board of Governors for cause if they aren't performing their number one task...Price Stability.  Where does the buck stop?

If Inflation were truly a global phenomenon as you claimed, you just can't explain why Japan, the world's 5th largest economy has an inflation rate 60 times less than ours.  They import almost all their raw materials and oil.  Yet they seem to be immune to the 'Global Supply Chain Inflation'.  They don't have container ships backing up at their ports.

Make no mistake.  There are clearly issues with OUR supply chain like LA Port bottlenecks from union work rules and California driving out independent truckers while Mayor Pete was on family leave nursing his baby.   Sniffy Joe said he fixed that by opening the port 24 hours.  It's still not fixed.  He could roll back trucking regulations to allow truckers to drive longer hours until the market corrects.  He could even bring in the National Guard and call it a national security issue if he was serious (or at least threaten that) He hasn't done shit.   

And that leads us to my second point where Joe has done shit...(no not the visit with the Pope).  Biden's war on carbon based energy.  His first day in office he killed the keystone pipeline.  He reentered the Paris climate accords that require us to reduce our use of oil.  He reversed many Trump policies that encouraged oil and gas production.  Is there any doubt why these policies are responsible for home heating oil increasing by 40% and the price of gasoline by 60% while inflation is only running 6%?  Of course Democrats blasted Trump when gas prices temporarily went up in 2018.  Why is Crazy Joe not fair game now....especially when his policies are encouraging elimination of fossil fuels?  In fact why aren't you cheering these high prices since you believe global climate change is an 'existential problem'.  Embrace the high gas and oil prices, Keviepoo.  Own it.  Love it.  it's your green agenda in action!

And now to the insults.  You spewed hatred of Donald Trump and insulted every poster you disagree with here for years.  And while I don't really hate Joe Biden I do think he is incompetent and clearly not up to the job.  I just figured you deserve a fraction of the shit you've been spewing for years back in your face.  And so, you are a clueless Trump deranged idiot who wastes his life endlessly trying to get the last word in on every post at a Las Vegas message board.  Just a pathetic narcissistic little turd with no self awareness and no self control.  So let's just see if Kevin has any self control.  He said it was pointless to discuss this with me.  Let's see if he tries to get the last insult in.  Because I don't think he can resist.  This is his life.

Friedman is the go-to economist when Republicans are OUT OF POWER.    Whenever they are in power they become pure-bred Keynsians.    And you can see the spending habits of every Republican President since Eisenhower that bears that out.    And there is no bigger poster child of that behavior than Trump's top economic adivisor, Larry Kudlow.

Oh, and  I dont have the time of day for adamant "anti-socialist" people who blame the free-market supply chain management in this country  on our government that does not manage it.   Thats a whole lot of nothing.   Perhaps Charles should see what entities control logistics in the other countries he compares us to.   Therein lies the difference.

As for the ports being jacked up - The biggest reason  is America has spent all of its tax dollars nation building other countries the past 50 years instread of ours.     Look at Singapore's ports and then look at ours.   Its like comparing the Jetsons to the FLintsones.

And the Friedman zealots are absolutely livid about the new Socialist, infrastructure bill that will address that.     Cry me a river.    And be glad we have people addressing it instead of just talking about addressing it.

Who sets the rules for port operations?  Who set the age for truck drivers at 21 and not 18?  Who reduced the amount of hours truckers can drive?  Who destroyed independent trucking in California with AB5?   Are there any of the thousands of regulations that can be rolled back safely to address the immediate crisis?  While Joe Biden didn't personally cause these problems he and Mayor Pete need to fix them because that's where the buck stops.  And what exactly have they done?

And, if the ports are so crappy why were there no bottlenecks during the Trump administration...especially pre-pandemic?  The fix obviously isn't a trillion dollar spending boondoggle that won't address any real problem for years or maybe decades.  If you believe the 'infrastructure bill' is the solution, I've got a 90 Billion Dollar California High Speed Rail system to sell you.  13 years, billions of dollars and no high speed rail to show for it.  Yeah.   More government waste.  That's the ticket.

The reason that there were no bottlenecks during the Trump administration is because the DemocRats were not in control - it is that simple.

Amazing that Charles and the rest of his idiot conservitard gang don't realize that the present situation--a huge surge in demand for goods after over a year of economic slowdown, but with markets unable to meet that demand because of the aftereffects of that slowdown--is unprecedented. Therefore, comparisons with past situations are pointless.

Always--always--when there are logistical problems in the supply of goods and services, the usual gang of Charles-clowns says it's because of those nasty ol' safety regulations. Yeah, if we allowed teenagers to drive commercial trucks, that would solve everything. Until they crashed all the trucks.

Charles hath decreed that any money spent on fixing the nation's roads, bridges, etc. is a waste. It would be karmic if he died in an auto accident caused by an infrastructure failure, but life isn't that fair. In fact, for the Charles gang, ALL gummint spending is a "waste" and a "boondoggle," except for Da Wall and the tens of millions that were spent every weekend flying the Orange Turd down to Mar El Asshole.

60 minutes did an excellent piece on the supply chain problems 2 weeks ago - tracing it from foreign countries who are currently shut down....through our ports that are overwhelmed.   And out our trucking companies..     There was alot of finger pointing but the conclusion was the pandemic fundamentally created a speding boom like nothing we've experienced before that has overwhelmed our ports.    

There's a huge line of truckers who cant pick up a container because their is no room for them to drop off their empty one to swap out.   Freight ships cant drop off their goods because their is no room.    Freight shippers price gauge to ridiculous levels - because they can.   Its the free market after all.

Is there something the government can do?  Some.  But as long as consumer demand is as high as it is and our ports remain a relic from the 20th century this will continue to be an issue.      

(PS - oil has plummeted $20/barrel in the last two weeks.  I dont credit this to Joe Biden....but I didnt credit the rise of oil prices to Joe Biden either.   For those who did then - way to go, Brandon !)

And I thought this thread would be about those hideous inflated holiday yard decorations.   JMHO.

Candy

When Frosty the Snowman starts leaking, yeah, he definitely looks...deflated.

(And of course, when that happens, it's Biden's fault. Rim shot.)