What Inflation and CRT Have in Common

People know what they don’t like.

By
142

How is inflation like critical race theory?

A lot of voters have a hard time explaining how either works, but they know they don’t like it when they see it.

Obviously, it’s a silly comparison on the merits. For starters, some voters actually like critical race theory while nobody likes paying higher prices. But, politically, the comparison is apt for two reasons.

First, the country is in a mood to blame the party in power for things it doesn’t like, even if it’s not abundantly clear the party in power is responsible.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    The old, compare-two-things-most-people-don’t-consider-similar essay idea trick.

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  2. Mathew A

    I disagree that the inflation is really a supply chain problem. Goods being produced are way up over pre-pandemic levels. It's just that demand is even higher.

    Why, trillions in deficit spending + trillions in Fed money printing.

    Inflation shouldn't be a surprise to anyone

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  3. Avatar photo
    Ohio Gas Hog

    "Politicians can tell voters not to believe their lying eyes about the scope of some scandal, but you can’t tell people they’re not actually paying higher prices for milk, gas, or their kids’ shoes. Everyone is an expert about their own pocketbook."

    American Public: "We Get It and We Got It. We Don't Like It!"

    Politicians: " You Don't Get It and you Don't Got It. Not My Fault!"

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    Bill Nelson

    CRT will fade as an issue because those who want it will learn that they need to hide it behind different labels. I was one of those who watched on-line education last year with my granddaughter. There was no CRT (she’s in 2nd grade) but a fair amount of discussion about kindness. Which is nice (but overrated) but it is easy to see how that can be transformed into something quite different.

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    1. Mathew A

      "CRT will fade as an issue because those who want it will learn that they need to hide it behind different labels. "

      I don't care what they call it. But when there are sending grade schoolers home crying because they are being told they are evil for being white, that's a problem. Woke = racist

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    Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

    Even if there is inflation in 2022 don't expect Republicans to rescue us from it. If they run true to form they'll just repeal Biden's taxes giving another jolt to an already inflationary economy.

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    rlritt

    "How is inflation like critical race theory?"

    Answer: They are both something you can blame on Biden.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

      LOL As if one needed an excuse... I'm blaming the odd acne outbreak and slow Chinese takeout on Joe.

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      1. Avatar photo
        rlritt

        Ha ha. I'm waiting in the salon to get my hair done and it's 12 min after my appointment. Damn Joe!

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        1. Avatar photo
          Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

          The Deep State strikes again!

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  7. cb76

    "Biden will probably join Carter and Ford in the one-termers’ club"

    And Trump and Bush the Elder. No reason to omit those two.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Pat Riot

    The number of containers held on the docks in LA has declined 29% in one week:

    https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1460698598392410114/photo/1

    But the world's investors are all wrong and we're really really seeing long-term inflation, and that has nothing to do with the fact that one half of our political system desperately wants inflation to be permanent...

    Republicans are praying a prayer every day that those docks stay clogged and the supply issues don't dissipate. But there's an evil force working against them that's more powerful than any Democrat: the desire among businesses to make money. If only Republicans can tell all of those businesses working every day at every stage of the supply chain to help their business to just stop it...

    Soon the price of milk will go down because dairy farmers--Democrats, all of them--will start competing with each other with lower prices and then--gasp--prices will go down and Republicans will look like idiots.

    The moral of the story is that Republicans really need to abolish the free market because it's getting in the way of their propaganda...

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    1. Avatar photo
      Ryan O’Connell

      Ladies and gentlemen, the infamous Pat Riot. Always wrong; but never disappointing.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Pat Riot

        For the record, this sort of crap is frowned upon here in the TD comments section.

        Delete your comment.

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          Ryan O’Connell

          You mean because I was a little hyperbolic? Gosh, that’s not your style at all right?

          No thanks.

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            Pat Riot

            No, it's a personal attack. Delete your comment.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Bill Nelson

      You need to read Scott Linsicome’s column on the supply chain. It ain’t going away until demand/supply drops. It has been years in the making.

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        Pat Riot

        Got it. The backlog went down 30% in the last 7 days. What did Biden do to make that happen? What happens if the backlog eases in a few months? Will you and Mr. Linsicome take everything you said back and re-think your life philosophy?

        We're both just making bets here, but I'm personally betting on thousands of businesses who all want to make money by solving this problem. Republicans of course are praying they fail....

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          Bill Nelson

          Did you read the column? If that number, which is specific and quite different than goods actually moved through, dropped by that mu, why?

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      rlritt

      Exactly. It's that Biden is a boring President. He doesn't say outrageous things. He works on the things he can control and let's his cabinet and staff do their work. So the media has no one to talk about. So they take photos of a left wing congress women who says outrageous things. The media should be talking about how Tump is calling the Republican Congress people who voted with the Democrats on a bi-partisan bill traitors and now they're being threatened with death. But no. Gas prices are up so who cares about anything else.

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        Bill Nelson

        “He doesn't say outrageous things.”
        This you might want to reconsider what is outrageous. The White House spends a lot of time walking back or “clarifying” Biden statements. A specific example is the situation in Taiwan where he has stepped in it several times with the Chinese.

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      2. Jaybrown

        If by "outrageous things" you mean absolute untruths told with a straight face, then yeah he says outrageous things, but in a calm, knowledgeable-seeming voice.

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          rlritt

          Yeah right. If you have bias, you hear lies. If you don't you're going to hear politician speak, which for all normal politicians.

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          1. Jaybrown

            I don't accuse Biden of telling lies. I accuse him of not knowing that the things he says are untrue.

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            Bill Nelson

            Everyone has bias. Can’t get rid of it. It is an innate part of human behavior.

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    CP

    I expect if Trump is nominated by the GOP, Biden will still win in 2024. But I may be naive. This is the problem with wishing bad things on one of the parties (or on our nation when one of the parties is in power). It means the other party isn't held to as high a standard and everybody loses, even if "we" win. I hope Biden manages to help fix inflation (or get out of the way and allow others to) so that he will become more popular--necessitating that Republicans find a good candidate in 2024 in order to extricate ourselves from this downward spiral of deteriorating character and competence.

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    1. Jaybrown

      In 2024 Biden will be 82 years old. Consider his current demeanor. Three years down the road is never kind to 79 year-olders.

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      WilliamJ

      Wow, Trump v Biden again, I don't know how I'd call that one, it seems too horrible to contemplate. I can't really figure out how that would play out politically.

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        JohnF

        If that actually happens, VP picks really have to matter. Biden will be 83 if/when he starts his second term. Trump will be 79. It's a reasonably good bet that neither of them would finish out their four-year term. So ... it all depends on who is next in line.

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        Man-Eating Cow

        "I don't know how I'd call that one"

        Another ballot I turn in with the president choice blank.

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          WilliamJ

          I would (and did) write in someone I respected. I meant call as in playing the pundit - who would I expect to win given what we know now.

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            Man-Eating Cow

            Unfortunately, my state does not permit write-in votes for President.

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      3. David R

        It's still incredibly frustrating to me that two reasonably competent candidates in Bush the Elder and Bill Clinton, we got Perot. But with Trump vs Hillary or Biden, where you'd think a even remotely competent-sounding third-party/independent candidate with decent funding would have had a real chance of winning, we got nothing.

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        1. cb76

          People learned their lesson after Nader. Vote third party and there's a immensely high liklihood you throw the election to the mainstream candidate you favor least. It's just not worth the risk.

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  10. Alex DeLarge

    ". . . Biden is probably right that inflation started as a supply-side phenomenon."

    Nope. As Milton Freedman famously observed "Inflation is everywhere, and at all times, a monetary phenomenon."

    Current inflation is due to the Fed increasing the money supply by 25% over 18 months. Supply chain problems are just a manifestation of the increased demand caused by all that new money.

    Biden is screwed. Inflation will only come down when the money supply gets pulled back. And that likely causes a recession as the economy overcorrects. It's gonna be a wild ride.

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      Dusty

      While partially true, Friedman also said that inflation is "too much money chasing too few goods." For a number of reasons the supply of goods hasn't been able to keep up with the demand of the people holding the money. Part of that is the increased money supply and savings rates, after a year of pandemic quackery. But part of it is also a strained supply chain.

      I think it's too early to tell what will happen with inflation for sure. It's completely plausible that we'll see disinflation once the supply bottlenecks ease. And if that happens then conservatives will have handed Biden a win that he did nothing to merit.

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      1. Mathew A

        Supply is actually higher than it was before the pandemic. It's just demand is WAY higher. That's cause of all the money printing

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      George.Skinner

      The supply chain problems are exacerbated by higher demand, but they're largely due to a global pandemic disrupting production in a complicated global web of trade. Where Biden is doubly screwed is that he and his administration have a limited ability to influence these problems, and they're also ideologically inclined towards policies that will pose an obstacle to resolving them. However, I agree that the first thing they could do is stop digging the hole bigger by dumping more money into the economy.

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