Tuesday, May 17, 2022

If you can't blind them with brilliance....

New White House Spokesman Gay Black Immigrant fails miserably at trying to explain to Peter Doocy how, precisely, raising taxes on corporations might reduce inflation.   Now to be fair, I don't envy Ms. Jean-Pierre's task, as the actual answer to what causes inflation is "various things which suppress supply while increasing demand", so there is no simple answer to how this might be.  Really, most sound economists (e.g. not aligned with Galbraith and the like) would argue that the opposite is true, because taxing corporations will tend to reduce the amount of product they produce (supressing supply) while enhancing demand through increased spending.

There is, however, one way in which President Biden's plan could work, and that is if Biden's "tax and spend" plans lead to a recession.  That noted, it seems as if "stagflation" a la Carter is the more likely effect at this point, because demand for petroleum products is fairly inelastic at a time when every move Biden has made will tend to decrease supply.  

Yes, Biden has, in one short year, achieved what it took Carter three years and a revolution in Iran to "achieve".  

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