‘ If I were an economic adviser to the President and he decided to enact a gas rebate, I would resign. Nobody who understands the laws of supply and demand should want to see this implemented.’
There is nobody who understands laws of supply and demand in the Biden regime, and certainly Biden doesn’t, or apparently in any Western Government. Isn’t that the root cause of the economic disaster unfolding around us?
In the UK the brilliant solution to the Govt made energy crisis caused in no small part by a price cap, is to give everyone £400 in the Winter season and apply a 25% windfall tax on energy company ‘excess’ profits. Sure to help both dampen demand in a period of high demand, and encourage investment in increasing supply.
Germany meanwhile is opening up more coal-fired power stations in order to wean itself off Russian gas, because, shock news, the zillions of wind turbines they have built can’t meet anywhere close to demand and tend to spend long periods becalmed and idle - something to do with Germany’s geographic location, and sluggish airflows over Continental Europe which came as a complete surprise to the Germans. And because coal-fired power stations cut carbon emissions…. no, just made that last bit up.
My thanks to Arnold and all those other patient souls who take the trouble to explain basic economic facts over and over in public forums. It must be incredibly frustration, but I hope you will continue to do so. Repetition is the only way people learn.
Restricting supply of fossil fuels is what Leftists have said they want to do. It is what they have been doing in Europe. It was one of the first actions the Biden administration took. Lest we forget, here is the executive order on decarbonization of the American economy. Note this particular objective:
"The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of Energy shall ... promote ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy..."
The Biden administration is waging war against the fossil fuel industry. They announced it. Anyone surprised at what has happened needs to start paying attention.
"If I were an economic adviser to the President and he decided to enact a gas rebate, I would resign."
But if you were an academic economist who voted for Biden, knowing/expecting such policies would be likely, would you resign a tenured professorship?
It's amusing sad to me to see so many "intelligent" folk who were so irrationally, but consistently, against Trump, now complaining strongly about the ignorant, dishonest alternative.
Biden's strangulation of gas production in America, starting immediately in Jan 2020, were designed to reduce supply AND increase the prices. The Dems got what they "wanted" - but now, dishonestly, claim they didn't really want THIS much.
Arnold, you were careful not to support Biden, unlike most FIT idiot-pundit-geniuses, so you're much less to blame -- but you continue to criticize Trump, months after his peaceful transfer of power, far more than Biden.
Biden's actions caused gas price increase; caused the Afghanistan "weak America" debacle, influenced Putin to invade Ukraine and push oil trading to the top of international relations.
Biden, not Trump, is the terrible US president who did all these terrible things - terrible because of terrible results.
"I grant that the rebate or a gas tax holiday could be politically popular, because many voters are ignorant."
No. Gas tax rebate would likely be "progressive" in the sense that likely everyone would get the same amount and the impact would be to the national debt (which will not be repaid by those that aren't even paying income taxes on net).
I mean it's dumb if you care about "overall society", but as a transfer from one group to another its obvious who the relative winners and losers would be. Sure, people would prefer simple cash, but a debit card that worked only at gas stations is about as close to cash as you can get. It need not necessarily increase gas demand either, people have a certain inelastic demand for gas and would burn through the cards before it impacted marginal gas demand. Even people without cars would just sell them for cash equivalent.
You can go down the line on this. Youngkin promised to end the grocery tax to help with inflation. You could apply the same logic but at the end of the day the grocery tax was a regressive tax on caloric efficient staple and it's a win to get the government funded in some other way.
Anyway, I find it pretty telling that a man taking a hard line in Ukraine is also doing something like this.
Holland, long ago installed a tax reduction on mortgages. This resulted in higher house prices. Same thing. Also it is a subsidy for the affluent (who can afford to buy a house).
I see in the news today that Biden is going to go ahead with a gasoline tax "holiday". I mostly wonder just what the point is of that. No one is going to be happy with an 18 cent price reduction, so why bother?
Some clever economists, keen to be insiders, will half-persuade themselves that somehow these policies are justified by "the theory of the second best":
Good analysis. Would you also resign from the staff of any Republican politician that claims that the increase in gasoline prices is due to Administrative actions like allowing states to slow due leasing of offshore tracks, or investing in infrastructure for the transportation of petroleum products?
Maybe I'm just being more sensitive to criticism of "my side," but I think that Libertarian-ish commentators concentrate a disproportionate amount of their criticism on the solecism of the Left than the Right.
‘ If I were an economic adviser to the President and he decided to enact a gas rebate, I would resign. Nobody who understands the laws of supply and demand should want to see this implemented.’
There is nobody who understands laws of supply and demand in the Biden regime, and certainly Biden doesn’t, or apparently in any Western Government. Isn’t that the root cause of the economic disaster unfolding around us?
In the UK the brilliant solution to the Govt made energy crisis caused in no small part by a price cap, is to give everyone £400 in the Winter season and apply a 25% windfall tax on energy company ‘excess’ profits. Sure to help both dampen demand in a period of high demand, and encourage investment in increasing supply.
Germany meanwhile is opening up more coal-fired power stations in order to wean itself off Russian gas, because, shock news, the zillions of wind turbines they have built can’t meet anywhere close to demand and tend to spend long periods becalmed and idle - something to do with Germany’s geographic location, and sluggish airflows over Continental Europe which came as a complete surprise to the Germans. And because coal-fired power stations cut carbon emissions…. no, just made that last bit up.
Funny old World.
My thanks to Arnold and all those other patient souls who take the trouble to explain basic economic facts over and over in public forums. It must be incredibly frustration, but I hope you will continue to do so. Repetition is the only way people learn.
Restricting supply of fossil fuels is what Leftists have said they want to do. It is what they have been doing in Europe. It was one of the first actions the Biden administration took. Lest we forget, here is the executive order on decarbonization of the American economy. Note this particular objective:
"The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of Energy shall ... promote ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy..."
The Biden administration is waging war against the fossil fuel industry. They announced it. Anyone surprised at what has happened needs to start paying attention.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/
"If I were an economic adviser to the President and he decided to enact a gas rebate, I would resign."
But if you were an academic economist who voted for Biden, knowing/expecting such policies would be likely, would you resign a tenured professorship?
It's amusing sad to me to see so many "intelligent" folk who were so irrationally, but consistently, against Trump, now complaining strongly about the ignorant, dishonest alternative.
Biden's strangulation of gas production in America, starting immediately in Jan 2020, were designed to reduce supply AND increase the prices. The Dems got what they "wanted" - but now, dishonestly, claim they didn't really want THIS much.
Arnold, you were careful not to support Biden, unlike most FIT idiot-pundit-geniuses, so you're much less to blame -- but you continue to criticize Trump, months after his peaceful transfer of power, far more than Biden.
Biden's actions caused gas price increase; caused the Afghanistan "weak America" debacle, influenced Putin to invade Ukraine and push oil trading to the top of international relations.
Biden, not Trump, is the terrible US president who did all these terrible things - terrible because of terrible results.
OK, no mean tweets.
"I grant that the rebate or a gas tax holiday could be politically popular, because many voters are ignorant."
No. Gas tax rebate would likely be "progressive" in the sense that likely everyone would get the same amount and the impact would be to the national debt (which will not be repaid by those that aren't even paying income taxes on net).
I mean it's dumb if you care about "overall society", but as a transfer from one group to another its obvious who the relative winners and losers would be. Sure, people would prefer simple cash, but a debit card that worked only at gas stations is about as close to cash as you can get. It need not necessarily increase gas demand either, people have a certain inelastic demand for gas and would burn through the cards before it impacted marginal gas demand. Even people without cars would just sell them for cash equivalent.
You can go down the line on this. Youngkin promised to end the grocery tax to help with inflation. You could apply the same logic but at the end of the day the grocery tax was a regressive tax on caloric efficient staple and it's a win to get the government funded in some other way.
Anyway, I find it pretty telling that a man taking a hard line in Ukraine is also doing something like this.
Holland, long ago installed a tax reduction on mortgages. This resulted in higher house prices. Same thing. Also it is a subsidy for the affluent (who can afford to buy a house).
I see in the news today that Biden is going to go ahead with a gasoline tax "holiday". I mostly wonder just what the point is of that. No one is going to be happy with an 18 cent price reduction, so why bother?
No worries mate. If your concerned the producers will pocket the gains, all you need to do is slap on some price controls.
And bell-bottomed jeans.
Some clever economists, keen to be insiders, will half-persuade themselves that somehow these policies are justified by "the theory of the second best":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_second_best
If you were ever an economic adviser to the President, you would have resigned already. You wouldn't last a day!
P.S. He probably saw all those stickers with his face pointing at the gas pump that say "I did that".
Good analysis. Would you also resign from the staff of any Republican politician that claims that the increase in gasoline prices is due to Administrative actions like allowing states to slow due leasing of offshore tracks, or investing in infrastructure for the transportation of petroleum products?
Maybe I'm just being more sensitive to criticism of "my side," but I think that Libertarian-ish commentators concentrate a disproportionate amount of their criticism on the solecism of the Left than the Right.