The problem with inflation is that we can see it in front of our nose, at the gas pump and grocery store and just about everywhere else. The Biden administration treats it as a public relations issue. It has addressed the issue in stages from denial (the “transitory” stage), to anger, bargaining, and depression. Unlike the five stages of grief, however, the Biden public relations treatment of inflation gives us stages of comedy, if only you can pick up on the joke. We haven’t quite reached the acceptance stage. It may take the midterm elections to move them along to acceptance.
Larry Kudlow noted the bargaining stage in on-air commentary published as a column yesterday by the New York Sun. Kudlow observed: “On various news shows over the weekend we saw various Biden communicators defend inflation and the economy, and the $4 trillion social welfare entitlement spending and tax hiking and fossil fuel destroying bill that they argue will actually reduce skyrocketing inflation.” This may be as close to acceptance as we get.
Brian Deese is the White House Director of the National Economic Council. His take is somewhere out there in the comedy empyrean beyond my analysis of the five stages. The vaccination crossover is bizarre. If we can achieve detachment, it is hilarious.
ABC’s @GStephanopoulos: “Is there anything President Biden can do” to address inflation?
Biden advisor @BrianDeeseNEC: “Number one … getting those shots out to 5-11 year olds.” pic.twitter.com/0sKlyTo7HB
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) November 15, 2021
Joe Concha recognizes the far-out stuff at the daily White House briefing as PsakiBombs. I think they are part of her psychedelic act.
NBC's Peter Alexander: "Americans are seeing their dollars, their paychecks stretched right now. Why should Americans not be concerned that injected another $1.57 trillion or more would raise inflation?"
Psaki: "B/c no economist out there is projecting that[.]"
Um, wut? pic.twitter.com/Cz4vcguSvs
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 15, 2021
We move from denial to anger when inflation is used in this fashion. Get with it, peons.
.@PressSec: "Our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and focus on clean energy options." pic.twitter.com/rdDIm2spwY
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 12, 2021
I think this represents the bargaining stage.
Good news out there for members of Congress (you too Republicans) there is a bill that they can support that will bring down costs and combat inflation. We welcome your support! https://t.co/24XpqU0Wt6
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) November 10, 2021
More bargaining.
.@PressSec Jen Psaki: "We don't have partnership from most Republicans on that. We hear a lot of screaming about inflation, we don't hear a lot of solution agreement or willingness to participate in a solution." https://t.co/ZJjhvPDvsw pic.twitter.com/WERaKYtt5X
— The Hill (@thehill) November 12, 2021
We arrive at depression.
Psaki dismisses the suffering of American families as Biden's runaway inflation crisis shows no signs of slowing:
"It's become a political cudgel"
These people are truly sick. pic.twitter.com/nF0oYkQQcq
— Danny De Urbina (@dannydeurbina) November 12, 2021
Psaki must have consulted with Deese for this PsakiBomb.
Press: “What is the President doing now, like immediately to try and directly impact the rising costs (inflation) that Americans are witnessing?”
Psaki: “Well the #1 thing that the President can do, is help get Covid under control. That – we know is the root cause of inflation.” pic.twitter.com/NcyjNw4DYX
— El American (@ElAmerican_) November 15, 2021
Bill McGurn writes in today’s Wall Street Journal: “Biden’s Spending Gives Milton Friedman the Last Laugh.” Here is a useful reminder from Friedman.
"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." – Milton Friedman pic.twitter.com/BxhD7ADWHH
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) November 12, 2021
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.