Inflation
June 6, 2022 — Scott Johnson
You probably missed the New York Times column last week exploring the upside of inflation. Understanding what Democrats and their supporters need to hear right now, the Times delivered Annaliese Griffin’s op-ed column “You Want to Buy Meat? In This Economy?” Like a bad cold contracted by a cigarette smoker, inflation presents a good opportunity to lose a bad habit. Griffin observes: “Meat, poultry, fish and eggs now cost 14.3
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June 2, 2022 — John Hinderaker
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that she was wrong when she said, last year, that she didn’t expect inflation to be much of a problem: "It wasn't just the president who got it wrong." After spending MONTHS insisting it was merely "transitory," Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen finally admits they were WRONG to downplay inflation. pic.twitter.com/IlJMvQsbrU — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 31, 2022 Of course, Yellen’s mea culpa
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May 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The White House has posted the transcript of new press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s briefing yesterday. I posted a video clip of Peter Doocy’s “brain teaser” of a question along with the nonanswer Jean-Pierre read in the adjacent post before the transcript was available. The transcript lets us widen the focus to the entire exchange. The view afforded by the widened focus is even worse than the single exchange in the
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May 16, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Joe Biden has advocated raising corporate taxes to “bring down inflation.” Not some idiotic departmental secretary, but the superannuated dunce himself. Even Jeff Bezos isn’t buying that one. Indeed, as John noted, he’s hooting in derision. The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss.
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May 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Earlier this week I quoted from President Biden’s May 10 remarks on the economy (correction in transcript): “Senator Rick Scott of Wisconsin [Florida], a member of the Senate Republican leadership, laid it all out in a plan. It’s the Ultra-MAGA Agenda.” If you wondered whence the “Ultra-MAGA” shtick suddenly materialized, as I have, Washington Post reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer have arrived with the answer. You had to know
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May 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
President Biden attempted to read remarks on the subject of inflation yesterday. The White House has posted the transcript here. I have posted the video below. The video begins with the fourth sentence, but you didn’t miss anything in the first three sentences. You could say that about the rest of his remarks as well. Michael Goodwin devotes his New York Post column to Biden’s remarks. Everything about Biden’s remarks
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April 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
President Biden traveled to Iowa yesterday to speak “on lowering energy costs” for working families. The White House has posted the transcript of his remarks here. He got off to a slow start. The transcript reflects that Biden introduced himself at the outset: “And I — my name is Jon- — Joe Biden.” As Biden himself might say, not joking. Not joking. “My name is Jon.” Next time, skip the
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April 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The numbers just released by the Labor Department this morning indicate that inflation has spiked to 8.5 percent year-over-year. The New York Times has posted a story on the numbers here. Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI home page, I see the the month-over-month number was 1.2 percent. No one told me arithmetic would be involved, but I think that amounts to 14.4 percent on an annualized basis.
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March 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Drawing on President Biden’s remarks at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference last week, I observed that Biden has found the uses of Vladimir Putin (apart from his use in negotiating another Iran giveaway on our behalf). He has baldly turned him to his own dishonest purposes. Speaking of Bidenflation, Biden asserted, “Democrats didn’t cause this problem. Vladimir Putin did. Putin’s gas tax has pushed prices higher.” Biden was back
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March 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Roger Kimball covered Vice President Harris’s tragicomic sojourn in Eastern Europe last week in his weekend Spectator column. We last checked in with Harris at Thursday’s press conference with the Polish president. On Friday, Harris moved on from Poland to Romania for another press conference, this time with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. The White House has posted the transcript of Harris’s remarks here. A reporter posed this not exactly shocking
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March 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The White House has posted the transcript of President Biden’s remarks at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference yesterday. NBC News has a good account of it here. Observe that Biden has found the uses of Vladimir Putin. He has baldly turned him to his own dishonest purposes. Speaking of Bidenflation, Biden asserted, “Democrats didn’t cause this problem. Vladimir Putin did. Putin’s gas tax has pushed prices higher.” Weren’t they
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February 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
There was an animatronic glitch or two in the excerpts of Lester Holt’s interview with President Biden that have been released so far. The whole thing is to be aired this afternoon before the bread and circuses brought to us by the NFL. What can we learn from Biden’s response to Holt’s question about the not so “temporary” inflation of Biden’s first year in office (video clip below)? A few
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February 12, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
When the latest inflation numbers came out this week, Joe Manchin used the occasion to again denounce appropriating trillions and trillions of dollars in new spending. This comment, of course, was a shot at the Democrats’ build back better proposal. I suggested that this boondoggle was on life support. But now, after all these months, the White House seems finally to be listening to Manchin’s concerns over inflation and the
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February 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
As the United States government measures such things, inflation hit a 40-year high of 7.5 percent over the past year. Reuters reports the story here. The Biden administration has achieved remarkable results in its first year in office. For the average family, that works out to increased costs of something like $276 per month. Whatever the shortcomings of the government’s measurement of inflation, the particulars defy roughly everything said about
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February 10, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.6 percent in January on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 7.5 percent. That’s a 40-year high. I’ll take the BLS’ word over my impressions. However, I feel like the prices I’m paying have risen more than 7.5 percent in just six months.
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January 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Today Joe Biden held a press gaggle of some kind on the subject of rising prices. When he was done talking he took questions–well, actually, he didn’t. Several reporters wanted to ask him about Ukraine, which he shot down. But then Peter Doocy of Fox News asked an on-topic question: “Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?” Biden’s answer is blowing up Twitter: I actually give
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January 23, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Today’s Sunday’s New York Times focuses on inflation — not so much the thing itself, but rather its political implications. This frontpage story is about an alleged debate over whether Joe Biden’s covid stimulus is to blame for America’s inflation rate being higher than most other countries it’s fair to compare us with. I’m not sure there is a genuine debate about this. However, to the Times’ credit, the article
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