Inflation crisis

Biden claims his economic plan is 'working' despite historically high inflation

August 10, 2022 by Carlos Garcia Leave a Comment

The Biden administration faced an onslaught of online criticism after saying that his economic plan was “working” despite the year-over-year inflation figure remaining historically high.

President Joe Biden addressed the newest inflation report on Wednesday from the White House.

“I want to say a word today about news that came out today relative to the economy. Actually I just want to say a number: zero,” said Biden.

“Today we received news that our economy had zero percent inflation in the month of July. Zero percent. Here’s what that means. While the price of some things go up, went up last month, the price of other things went down, by the same amount,” he continued.

“The result is zero inflation last month,” Biden added. “But people are still hurting. But zero inflation last month.”

Biden went on to say that the low unemployment rate and an increase in jobs added last month showed that his economic policies were working well.

“Our work is far from over but two things should be clear,” said Biden.

“First the economic plan is working and second is building an economy that will reward work. Wages are up this month, provide opportunity, help the middle class and still have work to do but we’re on track,” he added.

Many on social media took Biden to task for claiming that inflation was zero percent based on the monthly inflation figure that completely ignored the year-over-year figure that remained historically high.

While Biden may believe his policies are working, the voters do not. Polls have shown that Americans are hurting from high inflation and they blame the high spending policies of the Biden administration far more than other contributors, such as the war on Ukraine and the pandemic lockdown.

Here are Biden’s comments on the inflation fiasco:

Biden Says There Was ‘Zero Inflation’ in July

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Roth: Biden is impoverishing the middle and working classes

August 4, 2022 by Carol Roth Leave a Comment

The Democrats used to claim they were the party of the middle and working classes. While that hasn’t ever been true, it is now out in plain sight.

At every turn, the government is coming after more and more of your wealth, giving money to cronies and deceptively selling their maneuvers.

Under President Biden, this began with his attacks on traditional energy, which have materially raised the cost of living and sent us into what appears to be a “technical” recession.

Then, just a couple of months into the Biden presidency, the deceptively named “American Rescue Plan” not only overstimulated an already fragile and supply-constrained economy, but it quietly shifted tax reporting requirements for the IRS.

This change, which went into effect January 1, 2022, targets not mega-corporations and billionaires, but rather hobbyists, side-giggers, and small online sellers. Transactions via third party settlement processors or their electronic payment facilitators (ecommerce sites and marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, sites like Venmo or PayPal) were shifted from $20,000 and 200 transactions to a $600 threshold for IRS reporting.

Now, you are always responsible for reporting any income you make to the government, regardless of the amount, so there is no change there. However, lowering this threshold to target very small transactions puts an additional burden on the middle class, from moms who resell items from around the house no longer being used to kids making some extra cash from side jobs via marketplaces to hobbyists who frequently change the items in their collection.

This means, as an individual, you need to keep extensive records of everything related to a transaction, from how much you paid to relevant deductible fees and expenses — much like a business would. Ultimately, this rule change brings about more stress, costs, and time for everyday Americans for something that may be underreported by just a few dollars or even something that wasn’t misreported at all.

While this was sold as going after the “very wealthy,” it’s pretty clear that a $600 reporting threshold isn’t meant for the wealthy to pay their “fair share” of taxes.

And that’s the ruse: While headlines talk about going after billionaires, the details always make it harder for you. The wealthiest will get loopholes to preserve their wealth while you will be forced to give up your money.

Now, with the new “Inflation Reduction Act” — which is a spending bonanza that has nothing to do with reducing inflation and everything to do with separating you from your money — the government is looking to hire more IRS agents.

In fact, it is granting Biden’s “Build Back Better” wish of $80 billion in additional funding for the IRS. More than half of this is expressly earmarked for enforcement, and the funding expects to hire 87,000 additional employees. The New York Times estimated this “would be a nearly 70 percent increase over the agency’s entire funding levels for the past decade.”

With only 800-900 billionaires estimated in the country, you can see that’s not who tens of thousands of agents will be focused on. Just like lowering the threshold to $600 for e-commerce and hobby reporting, this is meant to come after you.

Even if more taxes are implemented at the corporate level, what do you think will happen? Will corporations and their shareholders eat those charges, or will they all pass them on to consumers?

At the end of the day, you are paying more.

You are paying more for gas, for housing, for food, and for just about everything in your life. Now, they want to increase taxes and audits and create a scenario where corporations pass more costs on to you. How the heck is any of this friendly to the middle or working classes?

It isn’t. They know and they don’t care. Before the additional spending, the Biden administration, with no abnormal issues like COVID relief to balloon it, was already projecting to spend $5.8 trillion, about a quarter of the GDP! And $1.4 trillion of that is deficit spending.

The Democrats under Biden want to spend you right out of the middle and working classes into poverty (and frankly, the Republicans aren’t thrifty, either). They can name bills whatever absurd names they want, but it doesn’t hide the fact they are working for the elite, not for you.

Federal Reserve bank president offers bleak outlook on inflation trajectory: 'It's higher than we expect'

August 1, 2022 by Chris Enloe Leave a Comment

Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, warned Sunday the inflation crisis does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Inflation hit 9.1% last month, a figure not seen in more than 40 years.

What did Kashkari say?

Speaking on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Kashkari revealed that economists are repeatedly surprised at new data that shows an alarming inflationary trajectory.

“We keep getting inflation readings — new data that comes in, and as recently as this past week — and we keep getting surprised. It’s higher than we expect,” Kashkari explained.

“And it’s not just a few categories — it’s spreading out more broadly across the economy,” he asserted.

The significant problem with inflation, Kashkari said, is the purchasing power of every dollar is decreasing. Thus, despite wages increasing, Americans have less money to spend because the rate of inflation is outpacing wage growth.

“For most Americans, their wages are going up, but they’re not going up as fast as inflation,” Kashkari said. “So most Americans’ real wages, real incomes are going down. That’s why families are finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet. When they go to the grocery store, when they buy necessities, they’re not able to buy as much because they’re getting a real-wage cut because inflation is growing so quickly.”

Minneapolis Fed chief says inflation still “very concerning”

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The comments came just days after Kashkari told the New York Times that it will be a long time before inflation subsides to the Fed’s targeted range.

“The committee is united in our determination to get inflation back down to 2%, and I think we’re going to continue to do what we need to do until we are convinced that inflation is well on its way back down to 2%— and we are a long way away from that,” he said.

Where is inflation going?

Despite the Fed continuing to raise benchmark interest rates to tamper inflationary pressures, inflation is likely to continue at alarming levels through the rest of the year.

Kiplinger, in fact, is predicting that inflation will remain around 9% for the rest of the year, a crippling forecast for Americans already struggling the make ends meet.