The student loan forgiveness program recently announced by President Joe Biden stirred up quite the political brouhaha. Progressives praised Biden for helping students burdened by overwhelming student loan debt. Conservatives decried it as an unfair giveaway. But as with most issues, the popular political debate misses the bigger picture.
The student loan crisis was primarily a problem of the federal government’s own creation. And no matter what you think about the forgiveness program, it fails to address the root of the problem.
The dollar index is at 20-year highs. This has led to talk of the dollar getting “too strong,” even as some worry that a “post-dollar” world could be on the horizon.
What explains this dichotomy?
In a nutshell, it’s not so much that the dollar is “strong.” It’s just the cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry basket.
The Fed continues to talk tough about fighting inflation. During his Jackson Hole speech, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will “use our tools forcefully” to attack inflation. Powell even promised some pain.
What exactly does Powell mean by “pain?”
Ron Paul pointed out that Powell wants to “soften the labor market.” In other words, he wants you to get fired.
Americans have been laboring under the burden of inflation for well over a year. We feel the pain everywhere, from the gas pump to the grocery store. Once it became impossible to sell the “inflation is transitory” narrative any longer, the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to fight inflation. As a result, the bubble economy is getting shaky. But even some people at the Fed seem to realize this is a fight they can’t win.
In a talk at the Ron Paul Institute, Mises Institute president Jeff Deist called inflation “state-sponsored terrorism.”
The so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” is another Washington DC lie. It won’t do anything to reduce inflation. In fact, it will do the exact opposite. Instead, they should have named it the “Liberty Reduction Act,” because that’s what 87,000 new IRS agents funded by this spending bill will do.
Yes, the tax man cometh. And he won’t just be coming for billionaires.
The CPI fell modestly in July, but prices remained near 40-year highs at 8.5%. Meanwhile, President Biden did a victory lap, and Congress passed an “Inflation Reduction Act” that will only make inflation worse.
It’s easy to look at inflation talk as political banter and wonky economic theorizing, but in fact, it hurts real people. As Brazilian economist André Marques explains, it makes us all poorer.
We get a lot of Orwellian spin out of Washington D.C. A recession isn’t a recession, Putin’s price hikes caused inflation, and now we’re told a massive spending bill will cure inflation.
Last weekend, the Senate gave final approval to the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.” Despite the catchy title, it is nothing but a tax-and-spend bill. The pundit class insists this will not only cool inflation but will also lower the budget deficit. This is a pipe dream. As Ron Paul explains, the bill will not only increase inflation, it will also increase government spending and taxes.
Government price controls are a bad idea that just won’t go away.
With prices skyrocketing, you’ll hear some people on the left argue that the US government should implement price controls. Meanwhile, President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan would impose various price controls on prescription drugs.
Inflation is off the chain. The CPI rose by 9.2% on an annual basis in June. As Ron Paul explains, everybody is feeling the pain. Even penguins.
Ronald Reagan once said the most terrifying nine words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
One of the biggest problems with government help is that it always comes at a cost. And the burden of that cost almost always falls on the very people that big government claims to help – the poor and middle class.
