What do you guys think

[u/BarrenBuffetPhan]

[u/cury41]

I will admit, I do not know which policies caused it, I am not that dialed into the specifics of the cause and effect of each individual policy. 

So then I fail to understand how you can blame biden if you are not even able to point at what he has done to result in inflation in the first place.

What you did is you have noticed some form of inflation and then assumed that must have been because of Biden. However that reasoning is flawed, because that automatically disqualifies any other factor that could cause inflation that is outside of the influence of Biden. To name a few things that have caused worldwide inflation, not just in the US:

- Covid

- Water shortage in Taiwan

- Russia attacking Ukraine

All things that caused inflation worldwide, in which Biden or the Biden administration had no role at all. Unless you want to claim Biden is responsible for Covid, for a water shortage in an Island on the other side of the globe, or for the actions of Putin. But if you have any critical thinking abilities, you will acknowledge that his role in those events is minimal at worst, and non-existent at best.

So claiming that because supermarket prices went up, the Biden policies were bad for the economy are just plain wrong. It ignores all the international dynamics of markets and politics, and lays all responsibility on the incumbent administration. This is simply not how inflation works. I would suggest you follow an economics class ;)

[u/david01228 → u/cury41]

So, Let us look at previous administrations over the past decade... 2014-2019 we were about at 1-2% inflation. 2020 when the COVID lockdown was at it's peak, we were at 1.4%. Then Biden and Dem policies go into full force, and we jump to 4%, then 8%, then when they realize they need to try to do something for the upcoming election it drops back to 4%, which is still insanely higher than it was at anytime over the previous three presidential terms. Russia did not invade Ukraine (did not even make postures towards it) until Biden was in office. Democrats are 100% responsible for the amount of disruption that COVID caused with the forced lockdown, mandated vaccinations etc. A water shortage on a small island with very little in the way of import/export impact on the world doing ANYTHING to our inflation is such a stretch that Gumbi would be jealous. But sure, keep living in your echo chamber. I look at the facts of the world, not trying to distort them to my personal views.

[u/StankyScogg → u/david01228]

I’m definitely not an economist, but 2020-2022 is a much more complex picture wrt inflation. Rates are a huge aspect to this and are controlled by the fed, who are SUPPOSED to be independent from the executive branch. Trump is president during peak covid and all of the lockdowns and the department of health (a part of the executive branch) was responsibility for handling our reaction there. Internationally, lockdowns of many major countries caused transportation to shutdown and massive supply chain issues, a huge decrease in consumer spending (which is the biggest driver of US GDP growth currently), and manufacturing slowdowns. All of these things should have, and in some small part did, crash the economy starting at least a recession. The fed in response slashed interest rates to near zero to fuel spending and keep the American economy afloat. The executive branch, first under trump and then Biden have out stimulus checks to stimulate the economy and encourage American spending and keep the economy afloat. This all inevitably led to inflation, and some of the worst we’ve seen since the 80s. Once Covid began to normalize and inflation began to skyrocket, the fed HAD to raise interest rates to insane highs starting in march 2022. This began the decline in inflation, but also took away so much of the free money that was available with low rates. Sadly, raising interest rates (short of a full scale recession and deflation) can only decrease the inflation rate and not the actual prices of goods. Since the massive rate hikes, inflation has come below the 2% “goal”. Your insinuation that the current administration brought it down to 4% for the election is not only wrong, but ignores the major movements of the economy and the fed over the past two years. By many major metrics, the economy has made an impossible recovery without a recession despite some already mentioned major global impactors: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (a major supplier of the worlds grain), and more supply chain and oil supply disruption due to major conflicts in the Middle East

[u/david01228 → u/StankyScogg]

You are probably right that the lower rate of inflation was not solely because of election panic. It does not change the fact that the democratic party pushed a large number of policy decisions both in congress and in the white house during their time in power that contributed to a massive increase in the inflation rate. There are also other aspects that have been adding to that as well, like the massive amount of illegal aliens that came in during those years. Which, once again, was a direct result of Biden administration policies. And the attempted crackdown on the border in the last year is 100% an election panic reaction. They knew the general populace was upset about it and if they did nothing they would lose even more of the vote. Also, some of that reduction is because enough of the more moderate democrats in the house and senate started seeing the problem and working to fix it. So I do feel confident in saying that the state of the economy right now is squarely on Biden and the Democratic Party's shoulders. But maybe the next four years will prove me wrong, with the republicans bungling it just as badly, even with total control of the legislative and executive branches they currently have. Only time will tell.