Inflation hurts all of us. Unfortunately, policymakers have only one cure: raising interest rates. This may throw millions of folks out of work and bankrupt thousands of small businesses, but cheer up! Eventually we’ll whip inflation!
After World War II, inflation soared to 20%, due to shortages, broken supply chains and pent-up consumer demand (Sound like America in 2022?) So what should we do now that we did in 1945?
First, enforce the 1922 “Packers and Stockyards Act” to allow truly free markets to flourish. For example, four corporations control beef processing in the US, across four non-competing geographic regions. In 2020, their profit margin was $21/100 pounds of beef. In 2022, it’s $279/100 pounds. (USDA figures) While ranchers get paid less for their beef, prices at the store have doubled. Similarly:
• Two telecom corporations oversee all Internet access.
• Three companies produce 100% of America’s baby formula. When a single factory went offline last February, 40% of the supply was cut in one day.
• Three businesses own 99% of drug stores.
• Four banks control 41% of all assets in the U.S. banking system.
Second, the government must negotiate drug prices on ALL Medicare/Medicaid purchases (Believe it or not, getting competitive bids for drugs is illegal!) A vial of insulin costs $8 in England; $9 in Germany; $12 in Canada … $98.70 in America.
Third, the feds should enact excess profit taxes. Gas prices spiked largely due to pent-up demand, and the fact that oil companies have doubled and tripled their profits. We should take a hint from England, where oil companies pay a 25% tax on their profits, but only those above last year’s profits. This tax will give EVERY British household $500 to $1,250 this winter, for their fuel bills. Plus, these oil companies can get that 25% tax back, if they reinvest it in Britain.
Monopolies, drug pricing and excess profits (MD&E) have driven prices up; and could be fixed with much less pain than raising interest rates. However, MD&E can only be addressed by our political leader who, Democrats and Republicans, are owned by monopolistic corporations.
None of us—”MAGA-heads” or “woke liberals”—none of us, save to richest of the rich, are represented in the halls of American power. When you vote this month, go ahead and vent your frustrations over abortion, gun rights, election rigging or “Bidenflation.” No matter who wins, the Top 1% will thank us all for our continued ignorance.
JEFF HOFFMAN, Waterloo, N.Y.
Thomas Edsall’s digest of political scientist’s opinions in the New York Times [10/26/22] on voters’ concerns misses the key concern of Southern and Southwestern voters: the Biden administration’s lack of a believable immigration policy.
It isn’t “the economy stupid” or “woman’s right to choose” or “true history” or “white supremacy” stupid, it’s the flow of illegals across our border with Mexico with no believable plan to stop it and humanely process the illegals who make it across.
Biden’s diplomacy, to dump money into the sending countries to discourage immigrants from fleeing, is a failure and subject to ridicule.
Biden needs to immediately announce the following immigration policy. or this election and the next and the republic might well be lost:
• USA will work in friendship with Mexico to post haste:
• Finish Trump’s wall (a properly manned and equipped fence) to STOP the illegal crossings of goods and people;
• Create eight-lane portals equipped and manned to pass legal goods and people in under five minutes; and
• Fully equip and man immigration offices on both sides of the border to protect immigrants and process them fully within 30 days.
The Biden Administration has made substantial progress towards fixing those many concerns discussed by Edsall’s political scientist experts, but zero progress on a believable immigration policy; This zero progress pisses-off both red and blue voters in Southern and South-western USA and myself.
Biden: You had better fix this lack of a policy with a speech before this election, or be ready to accept a defeat at the polls driven by our Southern neighbors.
THOMAS RICHARDS, North Attleboro, Mass.
Does anybody really believe the CIA and State Department didn’t anticipate the ensuing crisis in Ukraine when they engineered a coup d’etat there in 2014? Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland (wife of notorious Iraq War neocon Robert Kagan) was recorded conspiring with our ambassador as to whom they’d unilaterally install as president. She revealed her imperious audacity by dismissing the European Union’s concerns with her “F*** the EU” comment, which elicited international outrage but, unsurprisingly, not for the coup itself, a tradition in American foreign policy. In an unusually candid moment, John Bolton slipped recently and admitted, as Jake Tapper knowingly chuckled, that he has been complicit in many coups — perhaps this one?
Who, the, made the determination that Russia wold stand idly by and allow a NATO-sponsored government in Ukraine to gain control over their Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, historically a part of Russia? It baffles the imagination to think that anyone, let alone the CIA, would believe that Russia would not act decisively to protect its strategic interests.
We’re faced then with two possibilities, both disturbing to say the least: Either or own foreign policy establishment, which Obama disparagingly called “The Blob,” was caught off guard in failing to assess that Russia would respond in this predictable manner, or they acted deliberately in order to incite a confrontation. So: totally derelict or totally nefarious; which best describes our foreign policy actions over the past several decades?
While thoroughly repugnant, Russia’s military response to our provocations become more understandable when presented in the full context of the circumstances; circumstances in which many countries, especially in the global south, themselves have been embroiled. It may be why so many have taken a neutral stance during the crisis.
Now, as the situation in Ukraine becomes ever more intractable and the prospect of nuclear armageddon becomes ever more dire, it’s time to bring “The Blob” to heel and demand answers.
ROBERT McALLISTER, Lantana, Fla.
Sonali Kolhatkar’s article on Barbara Ehrenreich’s book [“How Barbara Ehrenreich exposed the ‘Positive Thinking Industry,’” 10/15/22 TPP] couldn’t have been more timely.
It was Dr. Norman Vincent Peale who wrote the book, “The Power of Positive Thinking” in 1952, and it has been in print ever since. It calls itself “The Greatest Inspirational Bestseller of Our Time.”
“The secret is to fill your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence and security.” He recommends filling your mind with verses from the Bible, “the healthiest, most powerful thoughts in the world.” He regained confidence in himself and his own powers by a simple process of “thought conditioning.”
The trouble with this is you’re always thinking about your thoughts and believing “positive” things and rejecting “negative” ones. And if things fail, it must be your believing that’s to blame. They say “Believe God” — but do you know God enough so you’ll believe Him?
The Bible shows God to us by showing how He works and what He wants for us. He also tells us what He doesn’t want and what He doesn’t want us to do or believe. Sometimes we and God may disagree on things. But if we don’t know God’s word(s), we might wind up believing the wrong things.
The way to know God’s will is to know God’s word. His word is truth. (The Bible says this itself.) A Bible such as the Scofield Reference Bible is one version that helps one gain an understanding of what you’re reading so you can profit by it. Only knowing about “believing” leaves out that what you believe matters.
The book of John especially addresses this. The whole Bible is form mankind, from Genesis to Revelation, to know the Creator and what He wants for us and how we get it. It’s all to help our believing.
CHERYL LOVELY, Presque Isle, Maine
An antique anecdote tells of a brief but incisive exchange between Baron von Humboldt and President Jefferson.
It seems that the German scientist was taken aback when he found a gazette highly critical of Jefferson among his papers. The German nobleman asked the Virginia democrat why the journal wasn’t surpressed and the editor not imprisoned for libel.
“Put that paper in your pocket, Baron,” advised Jefferson, “and if you hear the reality of our liberty, the freedom of our press, questioned, show them this paper and tell them where you found it.”
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
Look, I’m really getting sick and tired of American politics. It’s like watching a rerun of the Jerry Springer show every day. It seems like many politicians must really like math because they’re experts at long division.
In a nutshell, our current political system is like two headless horsemen that can’t see but, at the same time, are telling us where to go, just not to the same place, which leaves America sadly stuck in Sleepy Hollow.
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2022
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