Joe Biden Still Doesn't Get It

I'm not going to lie...

I'm a little frustrated right now.

Maybe you are, too.

Because maybe, like me, you can't really afford things right now.

Maybe you've felt that way for a while and worried it'd get worse, and then it did.

And maybe, like me, you and your feelings were dismissed by policymakers, politicians, and talking heads.

You see, I've been warning about inflation for a year and a half now, and I've been called all sorts of names...

"Alarmist."

"Ignorant."

"Fear-monger."

All sorts of stuff.

Even the president made fun of me.

"There's nobody suggesting there's unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist," Joe Biden said back in July. "Our experts believe and the data shows that most of the price increases we’ve seen are — were expected and expected to be temporary."

Now, here we are months later, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics says consumer prices increased 6.2% in October, the highest monthly increase in 30 years.

Frankly, given that, I'd expect an apology.

This man called me unserious for saying inflation was real and persistent. He told me to buzz off and shut up because the economy was "roaring back" even though my wife and I can't afford a decent house and our grocery bills are skyrocketing.

We're even withdrawing into something of a self-imposed quarantine because restaurant prices are so high it's gut-wrenching. Menu prices are obscene and just about everywhere I go now tacks on a 20% service charge because of a labor shortage.

That's weird, too, because Joe Biden also told me wages are rising. And that happened just yesterday right here in my hometown of Baltimore.

"The American people, in the midst of an economic crisis, that recovery is showing strong results, but not to them," Biden said. "They're still looking out there. Everything from a gallon of gas to a loaf of bread costs more. And it's worrisome, even though wages are going up."

No, Joe. It was worrisome a year ago. Now it's unbearable.

See, Joe Biden still doesn't get it.

Just look back at that statement. He doesn't even use the word "inflation" or acknowledge that prices are rising, as a matter of fact. 

He just says we're "still looking out there," like we're staring at a Rorschach painting or a shooting star. He says "everything" but really only cites two examples. And he sandwiches that dumb sentence between two humble brags about how the recovery is strong and wages are rising.

This statement isn't an admission that he was wrong. It's Joe Biden clinging to the myth that inflation is still "temporary."

He says we're seeing things, because the implication is that we'll see something different in the not-so-distant future.

But here's the thing...

We won't.

This is it.

This is the inflation people like me warned about months and months ago. It's here, relentless and unabating.

But here's what really galls me...

I mean, yes, I'm mad at Joe Biden.

But I also know that he's not really to blame. Joe Biden doesn't know what he's talking about.

He's just repeating what his "experts" tell him. He's just reading the words his speech writers wrote. He's just trying to play the part of a steady-handed leader, hoping this will all blow over.

In fact, I bet behind closed doors Joe Biden is looking at his team, and sleepily asking them in his own frustrated way: "Are you sure?"

Then they all say yes, tell him to just stick with it and let people know he hears them and really cares about their gas and bread prices.

Really, though, honestly, there isn't much more he can do.

Because the president doesn't set monetary policy — the Federal Reserve does.

Jerome Powell is the person Joe Biden's team is taking its cues from.

And he knows better. The entire FOMC knows better.

That's what's really galling.

It's that when Joe Biden says inflation is temporary he means it, because that's what he's been told.

Jerome Powell, on the other hand, is a liar because he knows it's not.

This was the plan all along.

I even said so back in August of 2020.

"The Federal Reserve has two objectives: 1) promote employment and 2) stabilize prices," I wrote. "Well in the next few weeks, it's going to abandon the second."

In that same article I even predicted gold would climb over $2,000 per ounce, which it did a couple of months later.

It was all perfectly obvious at the time, and it still is.

Because the real, open secret is this...

The Fed and the wealthy elite that back it and the government writ large like inflation.

They want it.

The government likes it because it increases the amount of debt it can accrue. Corporations and hedge funds like it because they can borrow interest-free money, "invest" in things they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford, and then reap the rewards of the asset prices they've ginned up (see: stocks, housing).

It's all a massive pyramid scheme.

They ramp up inflation to blow up massive bubbles in stocks and real estate, while the little guy struggles to make ends meet. Then they bail before everything comes crashing down, or give themselves bailouts if they get too greedy.

That's how our economy works now.

But like I said, Joe Biden doesn't get that.

And he never will.

Fight on,

Jason Simpkins

@OCSimpkins on Twitter

Jason Simpkins is Assistant Managing Editor of the Outsider Club and Investment Director of Wall Street's Proving Ground, a financial advisory focused on security companies and defense contractors. For more on Jason, check out his editor's page. 

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