US President Joe Biden has authorized billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine over the last nine months and requested billions more, while at the same time pushing a boycott of Russian energy exports on nations around the world that is driving up oil prices and making inflation even worse.
The Tuesday report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed consumer prices had increased by 8.3% in August 2022 over their prices in August 2021, meaning little impact has been made fighting inflation. Despite this, and despite a Commerce Department report showing the US is technically in a recession, the Biden administration has continued to claim that all is well in the US economy.
Political commentator and former hedge fund manager Charles Ortel told Sputnik on Wednesday that “inflation is a cruel and unforgiving tax” that hurts the poor the most, who are likely to vote against the Democrats in the November elections if things fail to improve.
“The Biden ‘administration’ from the president-down is peopled with economically illiterate hacks on a political mission to replace regulated capitalism with government-controlled socialism. Their lens is not whether individuals are better or worse off financially - in the main they care about power and control and they seem to believe they will retain power for years, whether or not voters are happy,” he said.
“Throughout modern American history, voters have cared most about whether after-tax incomes are rising faster than the cost of living, and about whether they are safe in their communities. Abundant evidence across America suggests that Biden initiatives are ruinous at home and dangerous abroad. So, Democrats and RINOS (Republicans in Name Only) who support them should be worried about the looming elections on 8 November 2022. Yet, Biden and his supporters still project confidence in their chances.”
“If events continue on their downward trajectory through the elections, a rout should happen, as happened in 2010. But we shall soon see whether Biden critics turn out to vote, or whether they will be intimidated or worse come election day.”
Noting that for economists, making predictions about inflation “seems more like a SWAG - ‘sophisticated wild-ass guess,’” Ortel noted three questions that dominate the concerns of ordinary American households:
1.
how do we keep the lights on and the heat running?2.
how shall we change our diets to afford soaring price increases in basic foodstuffs?3.
how can we ever hope to make better lives for our children and save for retirement?“Absent a deep recession or a depression, inflation could soar into double digits in America, particularly if we have a cold winter here. And for about 85% of American households, inflation is a cruel and unforgiving tax, one that hurts the poorest among us the most, as the wealthy can dip into savings to defray rising costs,” he noted.
FILE - Cars line up at a Sunoco gas station offering high-level ethanol-gasoline blends at a cost below regular gasoline, on April 13, 2022, in Delray Beach, Fla. Just as Americans gear up for summer road trips, the price of oil remains stubbornly high, pushing prices at the gas pump to painful heights. AAA said Tuesday, May 10, 2022, drivers are paying $4.37 for a gallon of regular gasoline.
© AP Photo / Marta Lavandier
“By their callous actions, Washington, DC, insiders in both parties show they care most about holding onto power and little about the consequences to constituents of their dangerous and foolhardy programs.”
Ortel noted that since the end of the Cold War, “America and her allies have rushed to embrace unregulated globalism - a system where no national government is strong enough or willing to hold multinational enterprises in check, whether these are profit-seeking or non-profit organizations.”
This system, he says, “has entrenched power in a handful of self-proclaimed ‘elites’ who are much wealthier and more powerful than they were in 1989,” widening the gap between rich and poor in America and the world. The contest between these worlds is part of the present political struggle, both domestically and internationally.
“The world teetered on a cliff 14 years ago in September 2008 - since then, actions by central banks to suppress benchmark interest rates below inflation and by governments to borrow and spend more money than they generated in tax revenues [have] created a cruel illusion that we were better off. In truth, these central banks and governments face a tougher reckoning as America and other nations will be forced to raise benchmark interest rates, making the cost of accumulated debts and ongoing deficits potentially overwhelming,” he said.
“Soon, we may find out just who may be too big to fail and whether failure is an option.”