Under Joe Biden & Kamala Harris, here’s what happened to America’s economy:
Gas: +49.1%
Electricity: +31.6%
Fuel oil: +46.4%
Airfare: +32%
Hotels: +52.3%
Groceries: +21.3%
Eating out: +22.7%
Baby food: +30.5%
K-12 food: +65.1%
Rent: +21.5%
Used cars: +21.3%
Public transportation: +22.3%
Real average weekly earnings: -3.6%
We’re barely getting by and it will only get worse if we continue down the same path for another four years.
I do not give a damn if somebody is black, white, green or even if one has a mean mouth, give me the policies that help Americans. The policies of the last 4 years help everyone but Americans.
So there are multiple things that have contributed to inflation over the last 5 years, some of which that were in the Biden administration’s control, but many not.
Firstly, there was a global pandemic. This caused supply chains to get flipped upside down, which significantly impacted supply and demand. So the 49% increase in gas price figure is missing some serious context - gas prices plummeted in summer of 2020 when the supply of gas so outweighed the demand that the price of oil went into the negative. As a result, oil rich nations began producing less and oil companies purchased less, so when the demand returned, the supply was now low. This obviously caused a major flip in gas prices. Gas prices YoY from 23-24 are down about 14% so gas prices have more or less stabilized.
This logic can be applied to almost every sector of our economy. Global supply chain issues caused massive inflation all over the world. The Biden Administration has said that the US has some of the lowest inflation rates in the world, but that line is missing some context as well. Out of the entire world? Sure the US has low inflation, but when you look at countries with similarly developed economies (the G7 for example) the US is pretty much right in the middle.
In the US, the federal government took action that contributed to inflation during the pandemic. Giving out loans to small/medium businesses (that were then forgiven) allowed many people to keep their jobs, the government also issued stimulus checks, put moratoriums on evictions, paused student loan payment, etc etc. The government obviously knew all of these things would create inflation, but at the time the decision was between that or potentially massive, massive increases in unemployment/homelessness.
These policies began under the Trump administration and then were continued by the Biden administration. I think it would be fair to argue that the Biden administration kept many of these policies in place longer than was necessary. But this artificially propped up business and jobs and created more cash in the economy than there was demand for. And ultimately, that also contributed to the upside down nature of supply/demand that created inflation.
Another major contributing factor, especially in the US, is corporations taking advantage of the situation and boosting their profits. We know that some of the inflation, particularly in food prices, is a direct result of increased cost for those companies, yet at a time where they are reporting increased cost and limited supply, their profits are continuing to increase. So they’re taking the zeitgeist of inflation and tacking on a few more percentage points to make money, which will only increase their profits more as their costs go back down. We have started to see some push back on this from consumers, with restaurants like McDonald’s seeing losses now that their prices have gotten out of hand.
Nowhere is the corporate interest and its role in inflation more obvious than in the housing market. Multi-billion dollar corporations are buying up singe family homes at prices that those selling can’t say no to just so they can charge rent and/or flip the house for a profit down the line. This is a major driving force behind soaring housing costs. And we’ve also seen some pushback there. I am not a fan of Charlie Kirk but I’ve heard him suggest regulations to limit this impact, and I’d support that idea. You’re also seeing apartment complexes utilize AI software that determines what rent should be and with so many properties using the same software, it essentially eliminates competition and, in effect, creates price collusion between property management companies. This software was just recently banned in San Francisco, where housing prices are of course completely out of control.
So, in sum, lots of factors have contributed to inflation and inflation has clearly slowed over the last 12-18 months. Short of another global pandemic and supply chain crisis, there’s not really a reason to believe that inflation will not continue to decrease under a Harris administration.
