President Joe Biden, “fighting inflation,” has become the kind of absurdity that makes people angry instead of making them laugh. He could be Alfred E. Neuman, but that he definitely does worry. Biden’s increasing frustration comes with the job of trying to divert all blame for inflation away from the Wall Street megabanks and the Federal Reserve, where it belongs. One result is that many state petroleum marketing/convenience store associations have encouraged their outlets to equip their gas pumps with a small picture of Biden right next to the small window which rings up the sale. Biden is shown pointing to the total you owe, and saying, “I did that!”
At the Summit of the Americas the President made a grandstand attempt to blame Exxon (and by implication other energy conglomerates) for inflation, and demanded that Exxon invest more in oil exploration and recovery and exploit its leases. He ended that clown show: “Exxon—Start investing and start paying your taxes.” Do we need to list? As “first acts” a year or so ago, Biden cancelled XL and stopped work on two other pipelines; banned drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge; froze issuance of all oil reserve leases; his first executive order (Jan. 20, 2021) set “social prices of carbon, nitrous oxide and methane” for all contracting precisely to stop investment in fossil fuels; etc.
But in Los Angeles he said, “One thing I want to say about the oil companies: They have 9,000 permits to drill. They’re not drilling,” he continued. “Why aren’t they drilling? Cause they make more money not producing more oil—the price goes up.”
Note that the German government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is trying to do the same thing—blame oil producers for inflation rather than big banks (see slug).
Now the Washington Post carries a report June 13 that when Biden went to Iowa to announce a 15% ethanol requirement, he himself thought it was a bad idea and would have no effect on inflation. He was talked into it by aides, primarily Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Brian Deese, on loan from BlackRock, Inc.; after making the Iowa speech, Biden complained loudly to Chief of Staff Ron Klain and other aides that it was a mistake. The Post article is largely a mood piece about how worried Biden is that inflation keeps rising and that there is nothing, he thinks, he can do about it; it all depends on the Fed[!].
