On Thursday, September 19, the day after the Federal Reserve began to lower interest rates two and a half years after it began to raise them to get inflation under control, President Joe Biden spoke to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit, nonpartisan forum where leaders from around the world can speak to larger questions about the global economy.
No because his argument, tho correct, is not clear enough to mobilize voters. He brings erudition to a knife feat. Plus the media and the legal system seem incapable of pushing back against evil but powerful forces.
Alas, too many in America’s oligarchy do not want a powerful federal system that facilitates equitable economic growth and distribution. They want concentrated economic and political power that is rigged to favor them.
The Republican coalition is reactionary. It is a big tent that promises those that join that they will be taken care of and the “others” will be stripped of power, economically disadvantaged, shunned and (at the extremes) rounded up and deported.
Why did Biden have to give this speech?
Why are these self-evident truths not headlined above the fold of every newspaper, the topic of conversation on every television, radio and social media discussion?
Why is the success not preached from every alter?
Why is a literal con man the nominee of one of our major parties and allowed to lie, cheat and steal?
Very sorry but I must take exception to both Ford and H. W. Bush.
Ford made a colossal mistake in pardoning Nixon. I think that might be one source of the horrible idea that presidents are above the law. The country needed to see justice done.
And HW was far worse. He is the one who negotiated with the Iranians to keep the American hostages until Reagan was sworn in in 1981, thus keeping the kudos from Jimmy Carter, a truly devilish campaign trick, that also kept those Americans in the duress of captivity longer.
And, if I remember correctly, Bush senior could have signed legislation that would have started moving us away from fossil fuels, but didn't because of pressure from the oil lobby.. Important time wasted.
I've got to agree with pilgrim here, Ford's pardon of Nixon exacerbated the ongoing notion that presidents were above the law. Worse it created the suspicion that there was somehow a deal in place when Nixon resigned (altho from a historical viewpoint I no longer believe that). I think the country would have been well served by airing the entire Watergate scandal including Nixon through official channels even though ultimately I would probably have agreed that Nixon should just be left to rot in history and not necessarily in a jail cell. I generally feel the same way about Trump. I don't expect him to serve a prison sentence (even if he might deserve it) but definitely believe he needs to be set aside for the rest of his life.
The reason we pick Biden is because he is helping not harming Native American people, and he has a multi-ethnic coalition. My family and friends have a range of skin colors and religions and nationalities.
Why don’t Palestinians blame Sinwar and Netanyahu? If they want to blame Biden, the least they could do is mention the Ayatollah in the same breath and lay equal blame with the country supporting the aggressors who started this on October 8. This whole protest movement makes little sense, unless you factor in that it is safe to protest in the U.S., but in Israel, Palestine and Iran you run a much higher risk of being shot, or arrested and beaten to death later.
“This” didn’t start on Oct 8. I agree that Biden has been a fantastic president for the economy, but disastrous for the Middle East. Palestinians asked for a halt in sending bombs. Is that too much?
Sure, because they have no comparison. Biden is president, and our country is allied to Israel. Some might feel that Biden is sacrificing Palestinians to save our democracy, knowing if Kamala loses to Trump there is going to be no help for Palestine whatsoever. Not those in Palestine, or those in the USA, who would be expelled at best, and incarcerated at worst.
Carter did not have to undo what Ronald Reagan did to our economy, and our society, and Biden did! After 40+ years or Reagan HEL-! We finally got someone who is starting to undo that, and the tanking of our nation into third world status that it has wrought.
I’ve said it before that there is a direct relationship between increased employment and decreased crime. But there is so much more. Jobs make home ownership a possibility and affordable housing further increases that possibility. The sense of pride that comes with having a good job is infectious. Neighborhoods start to feel more vibrant and welcoming. I could go all night but mostly I want to say; thank you Joe, job well done!
Thank you for listing and putting into perspective how much the Biden-Harris administration has accomplished in the last 3-1/2 years. When laid out in this way, these achievements seem astounding. The current administration deserves more credit, but in typical Biden style, he sought to focus attention on continuing the momentum to build a stronger future. What a class act!
My favorite is the number of GOP congresscritters and senators who cry "horrors" at the achievements of the Biden administration and then go to their constituents and claim credit for all the good things that have happened in their districts and states. The height of hypocrisy.
This clear report will be forwared to my right leaning business major grandson. He is starting his sophomore year at UW, Madison, after a summer internship at BMO Bank in Chicago. If he is learning anything at all in school, perhaps this might make him consider not voting fot Trump. A sizable part of this generation is in the "I'm going to get mine" mood after the devasttion of Covid.
Good luck with that, Ransom (not snark). We do have to reach them. UW-Madison is a pretty good school, which suggests your c. 20-year-old grandson is a pretty smart kid. Your grandson was probably something like 5 when the last major recession hit, so he probably doesn't actually remember much about it. Let's hope he gets to study about it in school and gets a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn't about our response. The mood of Gen-Z is entirely understandable, and there's nothing at all wrong about working for a bank. More power to your grandson (as long as he doesn't choose to become a vulture capitalist) :-)
I recommend you give/send him a copy of the book "Wealth Supremacy" by Marjorie Kelly. here is a link: https://marjoriekelly.org/wealthsupremacy/ ISBN 10: 1523004770 ISBN 13: 9781523004775 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2023
Though it is written in a very readable style, and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through, I keep having to put it down and think hard about what I've just read. I will never view capital, or the way we 'manage' it, the same way again.
Thanks for this book reference. In the summary I have read Kelly outlines a political structural solution to our present day global self destructive iniquitous capitalism. Sounds intriguing 🐈⬛💙
Remember when the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs were preaching 'disruption'? It became very popular to try to create value by tearing down old structures and building new instead. Most attempts failed, but select ones succeeded and made people rich, some of them extremely rich. These billionaires now think the same goes for everything they can get their hands on, even politics. What they all forget is that the 'system' was what protected them and allowed them to get rich. Most of them never learned about gratitude, paying back to society and respect for others, humbleness.
"create value by tearing down old structures and building new instead" Never heard this definition of disruption with respect to Silicon Valley. At least originally, it referred to remarkable technological breakthroughs.
Clayton M. Christensen, business theory. Comprehending Christensen's business model, which takes the disruptive vector from the idea borne from the mind of the innovator to a marketable product, is central to understanding how novel technology facilitates the rapid destruction of established technologies and markets by the disruptor.
Kind of reminds me of the time Michael Jordan decided to play baseball. One of the best basketball players of all time was only a so-so baseball player. The skills just weren't there. Also there is a concept called "survivor bias" in which we tend to focus on the very few successful individuals and not on the thousands of those who failed. For every Michael Jordan, there are several thousand kids who were not good enough for the NBA. For every Zuckerberg, there are thousands of other nerds who tried to disrupt/innovate something and lost thousands - or even millions, of their own and other people's money.
The COVID Plague, was completely mismanaged by DJT, and his Team of 'The Very Best People'... There was over 1,000,000 American Deaths in the First Wave... An extremely painful Shutdown was the chosen Method to limit its spread... This affected the normal functioning of Society... $$$ had to be injected to support Households, and local, State Gov'ts, etc... That begat Inflation.. Social Bonds were severed.... That begat Loneliness, and Crime... The Humiliation was that the USA had to beg China, where the Plague began, for PPE... The Dark Siths had hollowed-out American Industry in name of Out-Sourcing, and Greed... It is Incredulous that DJT's Minions believe that DJT's Administration were the 'Good Ole Days'....
When people are asked are you better off now than they were 4 years ago it is interesting they seem to think 2020 was a better time. It was chaos in this country with one of the worst Covid responses in the world.
All of that is true, and even if one could argue with a point here and there, there is no question that Biden revived the ideals of FDR and bolstered the belief that the purpose of government is to better the lives of its citizens. He's done a remarkable job doing just that.
More than half of Americans disagree. They would have voted against him and for the candidate who promised chaos and dictatorship. Those Americans have no idea what Biden has done. Our friends and neighbors live in a cloud of half-truths and Intellectual bankruptcy, and nobody has figured out how to bring them back to earth. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears, did it fall? If half the country doesn't notice that Biden and his crew saved us from a mammoth step backward, did it really happen?
I am sick and tired of the Republican politicians on TV blaming the inflation that we have had on Biden/Harris. Apparently, they have never heard of the Federal Reserve.
Dan, the Federal Reserve does not cause inflation. It reacts to it in ways designed to minimize it, or tries to. Inflation this time was caused by supply chain issues due to disruptions caused by the pandemic. The collection of rescue bills passed under Biden added inflationary pressure, but that’s slowly dissipating
And, as HCR noted, Putin’s war on Ukraine was another driver of inflation. Republican-leaning people I talk to blame it all on “government spending.” There was and still is price-gouging.
It’s interesting to me that Republicans claim Biden has been terrible for the economy. They are never specific about what Biden did wrong. Apparently they think it was everything! Eventually the recovery will be too obvious to dismiss as government lies.
"They are never specific about what Biden did wrong."
Not unless they are flat out lying. Otherwise, they talk gobbledygook. Like Trump's "better and cheaper" health plan, or jobs building infrastructure that never materialized. It's all fever dreams, except when unpleasant realities intrude, they try to pin it on Biden, or now on Harris. "Border Tzar"? Since when? Is the even such a thing?
In the fever dream world that Trump dwells in, one stable genius has the power to make all things happen by simply willing them and merely speaking them into being. And his minions believe it is just that simple. Hence, we get the same tired old refrains that Biden or Harris did this and that, and didn't do this and that.
Of course, in the real world of day to day politics, the most honest thing we can say, with rare exceptions, is that such and such did or didn't happen, succeeded or failed, under a given administration. And the period for assessing that success or failure often extends far past the term of any administration.
Your first sentence is spot on. And his minions think the same way, that is, they can drag America back to Ozzie and Harriet days just by saying the right words, thereby bringing that make-believe world into being. Conversely, they believe that anyone who calls attention to the fantasy nature of that belief system by speaking from reality is actively seeking to stop them from realizing their fever dream and is therefore "against America."
James, interestingly the people wanting a 1950’s economy don’t want the income tax rates that enabled that economy. The federal government paid for college for thousands of men under the GI bill—nothing close exists for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
But there are all sorts of ways of being taxed. Lower taxes in many cases turned into increased fees (state colleges among them) that make the rich richer yet further impoverish the already impoverished; and that makes for a host of problems. Decreasing business competition due to lack of anti-trust and congress and judgeships for sale results in de facto taxation in the form of price gouging. De-funding the IRS means that they go after the small fry but skirt the sharks. https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/06/how-the-irs-went-soft-on-billionaires-and-corporate-tax-cheats/
Or what is worse, is somehow a traitor to the country because of a perceived disloyalty to the stable genius. Wasn't it one of the King Louis's of France (I can't keep them straight) who famously said: l' Etat, c'est moi? From what I'm reading lately, Trump believes exactly that. And his MAGA minions seem to think that is just fine, that is just the kind of governing they want.
Or the Ozzie and Harriet fantasy. I lived through those days too, and there is a hell of a lot we as a society would not want to go back to. And a lot of the upside of those days, such as a growing middle class, was sabotaged by the increasingly plutocratic "GOP".
Dan, if the Federal Reserve is the cause of our inflation, how do you account for the global inflation that occurred after the COVID pandemic? The Federal Reserve can reduce inflation caused by two many consumers chasing after too few goods by making money more expensive to borrow. It can’t reduce inflation caused by companies greedily raising prices; only competition that depends on not having monopolies can do that.
Thank you for reporting in detail on this speech. Sadly I know I would have been unlikely to hear/read anything about it elsewhere.
I’m afraid there are still a lot of folks who’ve been encouraged by propagandists and a disinterested media to become disillusioned about politics and government in general, people whose attention is very much on the challenges of work and family. They’ve missed whatever tiny bits of media reporting have ever been allocated to reporting on what government is doing—their actual jobs.
I know the Democratic campaign stump speeches have talked about accomplishments and policies that will continue under Harris/Walz. But disinterested, disillusioned folk don’t watch/listen to/read about campaign speeches either. *sigh* i feel like we need to keep talking/reflecting about what Americans endured under Trump and how things were actually changed so dramatically and fruitfully after Biden/Harris took office. All the reasons “we are not going back!” We need to become so familiar with those details that we can educate others when an opportunity shows up.
Thank you, as always, for making the present situation clear. Give credit where credit is due. Joe Biden has outperformed expectations, and deserves much better accolades.
Compare Trimp's address and discussion with the Economic Club of two weeks ago to Biden's.
Joe outlined his actions and the reasoning behind them on how he righted the ship after discovering Donald's administration had been operating without any direction or plan whatsoever.
Before that same distinguished group, Donny cast blame and rambled on at length, including that now infamous statement, "Well, I would do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka… But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because the child care is, child care couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it... I want to stay with child care… So we'll take care of it."
The notion of returning to Donald's patented mix of personal enrichment, laissez faire, and Tinkle Down economics shouuld give everyone the screaming meemies. As a personal request, I ask everyone here to loudly challenge anybody who claims that the economy was better during the Trimp years. When someone says something that dumb they should have to defend it.
Those two speeches before the Economic Club could not be more different—one of this world, one floating around in outer space, or perhaps another unknown dimension. I was so pleased to read the words "screaming meemies" as they are a favorite of mine. Heck, little did I realize it, but every time I'm exposed to the latest outrage from Donald, that perfectly encapsulates what goes on, at least in my mind, and at times out loud. Screaming meemies for the win! May it end and return us to practical, sober, analytical and intelligent speech by someone that matches those descriptors. I want and need Madam President to carry on for us!
''He [Biden] told the audience at the Economic Club that we have such a dynamic system, and foreign companies are willing to invest here, because of the stability provided in the U.S. by the rule of law. Indeed, it is the rule of law that protects investments and capital, as evidenced by the fact that autocrats stash their money not in their own countries or other dictatorships, but in liberal democracies where investments cannot be taken away or legal protections changed on a dictator’s whim.''
Thank you, Joe. History will remember.
But will non-MAGA Republicans and undecided voters get it now and vote accordingly?
Kamala and Tim need to get the message out there that she was part of these policies and will continue them!
And also that they must be continued, or the ensuing disaster will be rapid.
No because his argument, tho correct, is not clear enough to mobilize voters. He brings erudition to a knife feat. Plus the media and the legal system seem incapable of pushing back against evil but powerful forces.
Alas, too many in America’s oligarchy do not want a powerful federal system that facilitates equitable economic growth and distribution. They want concentrated economic and political power that is rigged to favor them.
The Republican coalition is reactionary. It is a big tent that promises those that join that they will be taken care of and the “others” will be stripped of power, economically disadvantaged, shunned and (at the extremes) rounded up and deported.
Why did Biden have to give this speech?
Why are these self-evident truths not headlined above the fold of every newspaper, the topic of conversation on every television, radio and social media discussion?
Why is the success not preached from every alter?
Why is a literal con man the nominee of one of our major parties and allowed to lie, cheat and steal?
Within thee top four presidents of my life-time:
1st, President Ford;
2nd, President Carter;
Tied 2nd, President Biden; and,
4th, President G.H.W. Bush.
Very sorry but I must take exception to both Ford and H. W. Bush.
Ford made a colossal mistake in pardoning Nixon. I think that might be one source of the horrible idea that presidents are above the law. The country needed to see justice done.
And HW was far worse. He is the one who negotiated with the Iranians to keep the American hostages until Reagan was sworn in in 1981, thus keeping the kudos from Jimmy Carter, a truly devilish campaign trick, that also kept those Americans in the duress of captivity longer.
And, if I remember correctly, Bush senior could have signed legislation that would have started moving us away from fossil fuels, but didn't because of pressure from the oil lobby.. Important time wasted.
GHSB was an oil guy for >15 years.
I've got to agree with pilgrim here, Ford's pardon of Nixon exacerbated the ongoing notion that presidents were above the law. Worse it created the suspicion that there was somehow a deal in place when Nixon resigned (altho from a historical viewpoint I no longer believe that). I think the country would have been well served by airing the entire Watergate scandal including Nixon through official channels even though ultimately I would probably have agreed that Nixon should just be left to rot in history and not necessarily in a jail cell. I generally feel the same way about Trump. I don't expect him to serve a prison sentence (even if he might deserve it) but definitely believe he needs to be set aside for the rest of his life.
He deserves prison and we need to have him in prison.
No one is above the law.
And this is why I say Biden is the best president in my lifetime and my 90-year-old mother does too.
Me too, and I'm nearly 92. Although I'd have a hard time picking between Franklin Roosevelt and Joe Biden.
The reason we pick Biden is because he is helping not harming Native American people, and he has a multi-ethnic coalition. My family and friends have a range of skin colors and religions and nationalities.
FDR is still #1 in my book.
Palestinians would disagree.
Why don’t Palestinians blame Sinwar and Netanyahu? If they want to blame Biden, the least they could do is mention the Ayatollah in the same breath and lay equal blame with the country supporting the aggressors who started this on October 8. This whole protest movement makes little sense, unless you factor in that it is safe to protest in the U.S., but in Israel, Palestine and Iran you run a much higher risk of being shot, or arrested and beaten to death later.
“This” didn’t start on Oct 8. I agree that Biden has been a fantastic president for the economy, but disastrous for the Middle East. Palestinians asked for a halt in sending bombs. Is that too much?
Sure, because they have no comparison. Biden is president, and our country is allied to Israel. Some might feel that Biden is sacrificing Palestinians to save our democracy, knowing if Kamala loses to Trump there is going to be no help for Palestine whatsoever. Not those in Palestine, or those in the USA, who would be expelled at best, and incarcerated at worst.
They have limited knowledge to base their opinion and failings in their own system.
I think Carter is the best president since Eisenhower and possibly including Eisenhower because he was still a Republican.
Carter did not have to undo what Ronald Reagan did to our economy, and our society, and Biden did! After 40+ years or Reagan HEL-! We finally got someone who is starting to undo that, and the tanking of our nation into third world status that it has wrought.
I’ve said it before that there is a direct relationship between increased employment and decreased crime. But there is so much more. Jobs make home ownership a possibility and affordable housing further increases that possibility. The sense of pride that comes with having a good job is infectious. Neighborhoods start to feel more vibrant and welcoming. I could go all night but mostly I want to say; thank you Joe, job well done!
Thank you for listing and putting into perspective how much the Biden-Harris administration has accomplished in the last 3-1/2 years. When laid out in this way, these achievements seem astounding. The current administration deserves more credit, but in typical Biden style, he sought to focus attention on continuing the momentum to build a stronger future. What a class act!
And no thanks to that other party.
My favorite is the number of GOP congresscritters and senators who cry "horrors" at the achievements of the Biden administration and then go to their constituents and claim credit for all the good things that have happened in their districts and states. The height of hypocrisy.
This clear report will be forwared to my right leaning business major grandson. He is starting his sophomore year at UW, Madison, after a summer internship at BMO Bank in Chicago. If he is learning anything at all in school, perhaps this might make him consider not voting fot Trump. A sizable part of this generation is in the "I'm going to get mine" mood after the devasttion of Covid.
We have to reach them.
Good luck with that, Ransom (not snark). We do have to reach them. UW-Madison is a pretty good school, which suggests your c. 20-year-old grandson is a pretty smart kid. Your grandson was probably something like 5 when the last major recession hit, so he probably doesn't actually remember much about it. Let's hope he gets to study about it in school and gets a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn't about our response. The mood of Gen-Z is entirely understandable, and there's nothing at all wrong about working for a bank. More power to your grandson (as long as he doesn't choose to become a vulture capitalist) :-)
I recommend you give/send him a copy of the book "Wealth Supremacy" by Marjorie Kelly. here is a link: https://marjoriekelly.org/wealthsupremacy/ ISBN 10: 1523004770 ISBN 13: 9781523004775 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2023
Though it is written in a very readable style, and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through, I keep having to put it down and think hard about what I've just read. I will never view capital, or the way we 'manage' it, the same way again.
Thanks for this book reference. In the summary I have read Kelly outlines a political structural solution to our present day global self destructive iniquitous capitalism. Sounds intriguing 🐈⬛💙
Unless he is a Young Republican and watches Fox all day, he will hear dissent with Trump in Madison.
Thank you, Professor, for this news about what President Biden has been up to lately; as hardly a word is written about him elsewhere.
This speech will get little coverage. If he could package this into a reality tv show 🙃
Lynell, I am a free subscriber (wish I could afford to be a paid one ☹️) of the SubStack “What Did Joe Biden Do Today”—it covers much of what the news does not. Check out the latest post: https://whatdidbidendotoday.substack.com/p/what-did-joe-biden-do-today-c87?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=954002&post_id=149189921&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6wq7j&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Remember when the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs were preaching 'disruption'? It became very popular to try to create value by tearing down old structures and building new instead. Most attempts failed, but select ones succeeded and made people rich, some of them extremely rich. These billionaires now think the same goes for everything they can get their hands on, even politics. What they all forget is that the 'system' was what protected them and allowed them to get rich. Most of them never learned about gratitude, paying back to society and respect for others, humbleness.
"create value by tearing down old structures and building new instead" Never heard this definition of disruption with respect to Silicon Valley. At least originally, it referred to remarkable technological breakthroughs.
Remember the Zuck motto - move fast and break things. Not much social conscience or compassion there.
Clayton M. Christensen, business theory. Comprehending Christensen's business model, which takes the disruptive vector from the idea borne from the mind of the innovator to a marketable product, is central to understanding how novel technology facilitates the rapid destruction of established technologies and markets by the disruptor.
Tell that to Netscape.
Kind of reminds me of the time Michael Jordan decided to play baseball. One of the best basketball players of all time was only a so-so baseball player. The skills just weren't there. Also there is a concept called "survivor bias" in which we tend to focus on the very few successful individuals and not on the thousands of those who failed. For every Michael Jordan, there are several thousand kids who were not good enough for the NBA. For every Zuckerberg, there are thousands of other nerds who tried to disrupt/innovate something and lost thousands - or even millions, of their own and other people's money.
The COVID Plague, was completely mismanaged by DJT, and his Team of 'The Very Best People'... There was over 1,000,000 American Deaths in the First Wave... An extremely painful Shutdown was the chosen Method to limit its spread... This affected the normal functioning of Society... $$$ had to be injected to support Households, and local, State Gov'ts, etc... That begat Inflation.. Social Bonds were severed.... That begat Loneliness, and Crime... The Humiliation was that the USA had to beg China, where the Plague began, for PPE... The Dark Siths had hollowed-out American Industry in name of Out-Sourcing, and Greed... It is Incredulous that DJT's Minions believe that DJT's Administration were the 'Good Ole Days'....
When people are asked are you better off now than they were 4 years ago it is interesting they seem to think 2020 was a better time. It was chaos in this country with one of the worst Covid responses in the world.
Apparently hindsight is 20/400.
All of that is true, and even if one could argue with a point here and there, there is no question that Biden revived the ideals of FDR and bolstered the belief that the purpose of government is to better the lives of its citizens. He's done a remarkable job doing just that.
More than half of Americans disagree. They would have voted against him and for the candidate who promised chaos and dictatorship. Those Americans have no idea what Biden has done. Our friends and neighbors live in a cloud of half-truths and Intellectual bankruptcy, and nobody has figured out how to bring them back to earth. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears, did it fall? If half the country doesn't notice that Biden and his crew saved us from a mammoth step backward, did it really happen?
Right, alternative ‘facts’/ alternative reality. It seems so hard for a large chunk of Americans to put the last ~8 years in perspective.
Foxaganda strikes deep...
Joe Biden will be known as the 21st Century FDR! Thank you, Joe!
And former President Trump will be equated with Herbert Hoover, who also did NOTHING. And looked what happened to him !
He got a really great dam named after him.
🤣
Kudos to the Biden Administration for showing what leadership looks like. And thank you Professor ⭐ for elucidating their efforts.
I am sick and tired of the Republican politicians on TV blaming the inflation that we have had on Biden/Harris. Apparently, they have never heard of the Federal Reserve.
Dan, the Federal Reserve does not cause inflation. It reacts to it in ways designed to minimize it, or tries to. Inflation this time was caused by supply chain issues due to disruptions caused by the pandemic. The collection of rescue bills passed under Biden added inflationary pressure, but that’s slowly dissipating
And, as HCR noted, Putin’s war on Ukraine was another driver of inflation. Republican-leaning people I talk to blame it all on “government spending.” There was and still is price-gouging.
It’s interesting to me that Republicans claim Biden has been terrible for the economy. They are never specific about what Biden did wrong. Apparently they think it was everything! Eventually the recovery will be too obvious to dismiss as government lies.
"They are never specific about what Biden did wrong."
Not unless they are flat out lying. Otherwise, they talk gobbledygook. Like Trump's "better and cheaper" health plan, or jobs building infrastructure that never materialized. It's all fever dreams, except when unpleasant realities intrude, they try to pin it on Biden, or now on Harris. "Border Tzar"? Since when? Is the even such a thing?
"Better and cheaper" health plan... don't you mean "the concept of a plan"???
LOL
Exactly so.
In the fever dream world that Trump dwells in, one stable genius has the power to make all things happen by simply willing them and merely speaking them into being. And his minions believe it is just that simple. Hence, we get the same tired old refrains that Biden or Harris did this and that, and didn't do this and that.
Of course, in the real world of day to day politics, the most honest thing we can say, with rare exceptions, is that such and such did or didn't happen, succeeded or failed, under a given administration. And the period for assessing that success or failure often extends far past the term of any administration.
Your first sentence is spot on. And his minions think the same way, that is, they can drag America back to Ozzie and Harriet days just by saying the right words, thereby bringing that make-believe world into being. Conversely, they believe that anyone who calls attention to the fantasy nature of that belief system by speaking from reality is actively seeking to stop them from realizing their fever dream and is therefore "against America."
James, interestingly the people wanting a 1950’s economy don’t want the income tax rates that enabled that economy. The federal government paid for college for thousands of men under the GI bill—nothing close exists for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
But there are all sorts of ways of being taxed. Lower taxes in many cases turned into increased fees (state colleges among them) that make the rich richer yet further impoverish the already impoverished; and that makes for a host of problems. Decreasing business competition due to lack of anti-trust and congress and judgeships for sale results in de facto taxation in the form of price gouging. De-funding the IRS means that they go after the small fry but skirt the sharks. https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/06/how-the-irs-went-soft-on-billionaires-and-corporate-tax-cheats/
Or what is worse, is somehow a traitor to the country because of a perceived disloyalty to the stable genius. Wasn't it one of the King Louis's of France (I can't keep them straight) who famously said: l' Etat, c'est moi? From what I'm reading lately, Trump believes exactly that. And his MAGA minions seem to think that is just fine, that is just the kind of governing they want.
Or the Ozzie and Harriet fantasy. I lived through those days too, and there is a hell of a lot we as a society would not want to go back to. And a lot of the upside of those days, such as a growing middle class, was sabotaged by the increasingly plutocratic "GOP".
The GOP is now the OJC —Orange Jesus Cult
Ozzie and Harriet days had many restrictions for women
Yes they surely did. Some folks want those back, too. Not I, though.
Dan, if the Federal Reserve is the cause of our inflation, how do you account for the global inflation that occurred after the COVID pandemic? The Federal Reserve can reduce inflation caused by two many consumers chasing after too few goods by making money more expensive to borrow. It can’t reduce inflation caused by companies greedily raising prices; only competition that depends on not having monopolies can do that.
Who actually raises the prices and why? It can get complicated, but greed has a hand in it.
Thank you for reporting in detail on this speech. Sadly I know I would have been unlikely to hear/read anything about it elsewhere.
I’m afraid there are still a lot of folks who’ve been encouraged by propagandists and a disinterested media to become disillusioned about politics and government in general, people whose attention is very much on the challenges of work and family. They’ve missed whatever tiny bits of media reporting have ever been allocated to reporting on what government is doing—their actual jobs.
I know the Democratic campaign stump speeches have talked about accomplishments and policies that will continue under Harris/Walz. But disinterested, disillusioned folk don’t watch/listen to/read about campaign speeches either. *sigh* i feel like we need to keep talking/reflecting about what Americans endured under Trump and how things were actually changed so dramatically and fruitfully after Biden/Harris took office. All the reasons “we are not going back!” We need to become so familiar with those details that we can educate others when an opportunity shows up.
Thank you, as always, for making the present situation clear. Give credit where credit is due. Joe Biden has outperformed expectations, and deserves much better accolades.
Compare Trimp's address and discussion with the Economic Club of two weeks ago to Biden's.
Joe outlined his actions and the reasoning behind them on how he righted the ship after discovering Donald's administration had been operating without any direction or plan whatsoever.
Before that same distinguished group, Donny cast blame and rambled on at length, including that now infamous statement, "Well, I would do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka… But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because the child care is, child care couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it... I want to stay with child care… So we'll take care of it."
The notion of returning to Donald's patented mix of personal enrichment, laissez faire, and Tinkle Down economics shouuld give everyone the screaming meemies. As a personal request, I ask everyone here to loudly challenge anybody who claims that the economy was better during the Trimp years. When someone says something that dumb they should have to defend it.
Those two speeches before the Economic Club could not be more different—one of this world, one floating around in outer space, or perhaps another unknown dimension. I was so pleased to read the words "screaming meemies" as they are a favorite of mine. Heck, little did I realize it, but every time I'm exposed to the latest outrage from Donald, that perfectly encapsulates what goes on, at least in my mind, and at times out loud. Screaming meemies for the win! May it end and return us to practical, sober, analytical and intelligent speech by someone that matches those descriptors. I want and need Madam President to carry on for us!
- Pulled Quote -
''He [Biden] told the audience at the Economic Club that we have such a dynamic system, and foreign companies are willing to invest here, because of the stability provided in the U.S. by the rule of law. Indeed, it is the rule of law that protects investments and capital, as evidenced by the fact that autocrats stash their money not in their own countries or other dictatorships, but in liberal democracies where investments cannot be taken away or legal protections changed on a dictator’s whim.''
November 5: Democracy or Dictatorship?
Choose wisely.