The waves keep rippling from the bombshell inflation report released on Wednesday with indications now that the Biden administration was completely caught off guard and does not have any real plans for how to respond or try to reverse course. We covered some of it in an earlier post, but the shockwaves keep coming. The overriding issue seems to be a total lack of experience when it comes to dealing with inflation despite warnings from top economists, including Larry Summers, the former director of the National Economic Council under President Obama.
Reports and analysts have been warning for months now that the inflation indicators were skyrocketing and yet the White House seemed unconcerned and unconvinced. Now we’re starting to know why:
Senior White House officials were greatly disappointed by Wednesday’s report and surprised at how serious the inflationary problems are throughout the economy, according to people familiar with the matter. The report also fueled mounting concerns about supply chain bottlenecks.
The admission by senior White House officials that they were “surprised” about the inflation numbers they were being warned about does not inspire confidence that anyone assembled on Biden’s team knows anything about the economy. Remember, this administration was about putting the “adults” in charge, yet the entire cabinet is looking more like a cadre of inexperienced recruits tapped to check off social justice boxes, not because they had extensive resumes.
This now explains why the message from the White House has been so scattered when it comes to inflation. They haven’t realized their own policies and spending have been pouring kerosene on the fire, and now reports illuminate just in inept this administration truly is:
For weeks, administration officials have been scrambling to try and alleviate the economic problems, frequently convening meetings across agencies and searching for solutions. But many administration officials have conceded they have few policy options to bring immediate relief to Americans, and the White House is concerned about ongoing political fallout, especially around the holiday season.
The White House has realized now that they spent months contributing to inflation with rampant spending. There is no quick fix at this point, and further spending will not help the problem. How does Biden reverse course and provide immediate relief? That path remains unclear despite top economists providing advice that the White House continues to ignore.
Corporate America is also taking notice, as some CEOs are quietly starting to speak out and raise concerns over where, exactly, this White House is headed with spending and economic policies:
“I don’t think the administration is on top of it at all,” said the CEO of one of the U.S.’s largest companies who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern over angering the administration. “How many people inside this White House really know what inflation is or how it impacts businesses? It’s not really their fault. It’s been so long since we really had it.”
That criticism is probably pretty spot on considering the other reports showing how much the White House was caught off guard when the inflation report broke. An administration filled with woke novices bent on pushing social justice messages has no clue how to deal with legitimate economic issues or tend to a national economy on the macro and micro level.
How did the White House misread the economic indicators so badly? According to former Obama Economic Council director Larry Summers, they simply didn’t believe the numbers and acted as if the entire issue would be temporary:
“I think that the policymakers in Washington unfortunately have almost every month been behind the curve,” Summers said on CNN. “They said it was transitory; it doesn’t look so transitory. They said it was due to a few specific factors; doesn’t look to be a few specific factors. They said when September came and people went back to school, that the labor force would grow, and it didn’t happen.”
Whatever the case may be, America is suffering while Biden’s White House jumps from one problem to the next. It is when crisis strikes that the true nature of political leaders is exposed. Biden simply seems unable to comprehend and tackle this problem while the economy languishes.
His vaccine mandates have proven to be unpopular with businesses and unions. His economic and spending policies are driving inflation. To top it off, his White House economic team was “surprised” about the resulting inflation report. Where do we go from here?
