More Bidenomics

[otto105]

No, they don’t.

But please, run on the Biden economy. Everyone working 2 jobs to make ends meet will know who to vote for.

Everyone has two jobs?

Name your two.

 

[multivita-man]

No, they don’t.

But please, run on the Biden economy. Everyone working 2 jobs to make ends meet will know who to vote for.

I'm not saying that everything Biden hasn't fucked up - he has. The stimulus in early 2021 that he and the Dems passed likely added to monetary inflation. I also think he maybe bought into the 'transitory' inflation story for a bit too long, and also for a bit too long, kinda stayed in his seat when we probably could have used a little more White House 'energy' in terms of hiring more port workers, truckers, rail workers, etc. He's made mistakes and I'm not averse to pointing that out.

It's funny - I get into it with you guys because you all blame him for shit that's not his fault, and I get into it with his defenders because they blame him for nothing. So if I'm pissing off everyone I figure I'm probably more right than not.

 

[otto105]

I'm not saying that everything Biden hasn't fucked up - he has. The stimulus in early 2021 that he and the Dems passed likely added to monetary inflation. I also think he maybe bought into the 'transitory' inflation story for a bit too long, and also for a bit too long, kinda stayed in his seat when we probably could have used a little more White House 'energy' in terms of hiring more port workers, truckers, rail workers, etc. He's made mistakes and I'm not averse to pointing that out.

It's funny - I get into it with you guys because you all blame him for shit that's not his fault, and I get into it with his defenders because they blame him for nothing. So if I'm pissing off everyone I figure I'm probably more right than not.

Fair assessment.

You tend to blame Biden for things out of his control a bit much.

 

[multivita-man]

Fair assessment.

You tend to blame Biden for things out of his control a bit much.

Nah, I don't think so, a mistake is a mistake, and Biden made mistakes - I call it like I see it. I try to call balls and strikes. But if it makes you feel better, I will also say in his defense that getting it right isn't as easy as it looks, and making the wrong call was also fairly easy.

It's easy for me to blame him for adding to monetary inflation -- in hindsight. But in early 2021, it wasn't like there was unanimity on whether inflation was transitory or whether it was actually monetary and baked into the system. Some economists like Larry Summers (a Clinton Democrat) and Mohamed El Erian, and also some investors (Jeremy Grantham) got it *right*, and others got it wrong.

I admit that I was wrong, just like Joe Biden and Jay Powell were wrong. I thought it was transitory, and I underestimated how much household savings and pent-up demand there was, but as I've said before, the pandemic's economics were unprecedented -- not only in the modern era, but in history. We've had pandemics before, but no pandemic in the era of modern globalized central banking.

Biden made his decision to support stimulus based on the ghosts of 2009. In response to the Great Recession, most progressive and even a fair number of 'neutral' or 'centrist' economists believe we didn't do enough to support the low-wage and working class household in terms of recovery. Consequently, recovery was slow, and we didn't actually get to real wage growth until...the Trump years. And no, I don't credit Trump for that; I blame the Democratic centrists and the Republicans for not supporting American household stimulus, and it simply took that long for the American worker and household to recover.

Unfortunately, what he did not realize was that 2021 was not 2009. It was a different situation altogether. But again, there wasn't unanimity or consensus of thought and there wasn't a lot of great data on household wealth at the time, though I'm sure there was some that exists. Obviously Larry Summers, M. El Erian, and others got their calls right.