Pirate's Cove

See, this is bad for Joe. All you little people out there, you’re just role players. Not even supporting characters, you’re those people they have cattle calls for, where you might get an overall “thanks to all the people who came out and dressed up for the big fight scene shoot” in the credits. Or, maybe no

As job market booms, 1 word continues to dog Biden

(there’s an alternate headline, This week in Bidenomics: Good news nobody cares about)

One thing is going right for President Biden. The job market remains hot, with businesses hiring just about anybody they can find. Employers added 678,000 jobs in February, far more than economists expected. The February report was uniformly solid, with gains in nearly every sector. Upward revisions to job growth in the two prior months show that the surge of the Omicron COVID variant had little to no effect on hiring.

The thing is, the vast majority of those jobs were not new, they were just rehiring to fill the existing position that were shut down thanks to the Chinese superflu. It’s not like many new businesses are starting or giant projects.

This may not benefit Biden at all, politically. Americans are now overwhelmingly worried about inflation, which is likely to get worse in coming weeks on account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on oil and gas prices. Oil prices have risen by $25 per barrel since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, and by $36 per barrel since the start of the year. That flows directly into gas prices, which are up about 50 cents per gallon to a national average of $3.84. Average prices seem likely to top $4 soon and could eclipse the all-time high of $4.11, from 2008.

Just for utter, crazy wild leftist fairness, CNN says that the average gas price in America on Trump’s last day was $2.393. When I filled up a car last night the local station was $3.799. Just a couple days ago it was $3.599. And $3.299 a few days before that. That truly adds up, does it not?

But soaring gas prices are perilous for Biden, anyway, for three reasons. First, while Biden is earning high marks for unifying allies in support of Ukraine, he has not prepared Americans for any kind of sacrifice. In fact, he has said repeatedly that he’s trying to protect the U.S. economy from rising prices, given that inflation was running at 7.5% before the Russian invasion. Gas prices are rising anyway, and drivers are getting mad.

Politicians can speak about all sorts of high minded ideals and agendas, however, at the end of the day it is all about pocket-book issues.

Second, many voters associate Biden’s push for green energy with rising gas prices, even if the connection is tenuous, at best. Voters mistakenly think Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have run from Canada to Nebraska, removed oil from the market and pushed prices up, when in reality it wasn’t even built or operational. Some think Biden has reined in drilling, when in fact permits for drilling on public land under Biden so far have gone up. By demonizing fossil fuels and pushing for renewables, Biden has made it seem like he’s happy to drive oil out of the market, no matter how much it costs consumers. That’s not what he’s actually doing, but it’ll now be tough persuading skeptics otherwise.

But, things like that, even when not operational, can affect the stock market, and cause pricing to rise over futures.

With average gas prices heading rapidly toward $4 per gallon, overall inflation could hit 10% within a couple of months. Inflation hasn’t yet hindered job or economic growth, but if it gets much higher and stays there for a while, it will. Wage growth, at 5.1%, isn’t keeping up with inflation, which erodes purchasing power. Consumers have been spending freely, drawing down savings they built up while stuck at home during the worst of the COVID pandemic. But that spending boom could be winding down.

Notice that discounts and specials are going goodbye all over the place, particularly if prices are staying mostly similar. Special values are disappearing for fast food joints, and they’re sending out fewer coupons. Some products are hard to find, and may only be available in limited quantities. Shouldn’t things be getting better now that COVID19 is fading?

Biden says he has his own plan for cutting prices—but it would require Congress to act. In his March 1 State of the Union speech, Biden said he wants Congress to pass a law cutting prescription drug prices, subsidizing green energy, and covering child care costs for millions of families. This is part of his “build a better America” plan, the new and improved version of “build back better.” Congressional Democrats, however, continue to bicker about what to prioritize and who to blame if they can’t get anything done. For voters, that’s not a problem. They’ll blame Biden, whether he deserves it, or not.

None of those will help the current economic issues. Is this a case of Biden being divorced from reality, or, intentional?

California Gas Price Eclipses $5 Per Gallon As National Average Spikes 11 Cents Overnight https://t.co/AcftZHlCn5 pic.twitter.com/Kd4sRZgUz7

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) March 4, 2022