President Biden Throws The Fed Under the Bus as Inflation Soars and Consumers Worry; Trump Offers Solution
President Joe Biden met with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday as inflation continued to skyrocket and consumers began
Tristan Green
President Joe Biden met with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday as inflation continued to skyrocket and consumers began to panic about the impact to their wallets.
While Biden signaled that the Fed's independence is a good thing, it may not be so good for everyone else. And former President Donald Trump says he knows exactly what needs to happen to fix the worrying trend.
The Fed’s Indepenence is Great for Biden – Maybe Bad for Everyone Else
Inflation is at a 40-year high and consumers are really starting to feel the crunch on purchases of everything from cars and houses all the way down to bread, milk, and meat.
Food and living expenses are more unaffordable than ever as the inflation continues to rise with no end in sight, and Biden met with the Fed chairman to discuss possible remedy. However, Biden has reiterated that the Fed has independence and that's a good thing. But it may only be good for him.
As the Federal Reserve continues to take the blame for the rising inflation and lack of remedy, Biden keeps his hands clean – but consumers don't care who's at fault when the administration helms the most unaffordable 4 years in a lifetime.
Associated Press reports, "Inflation has shown signs of moderating but is likely to remain far above the Fed’s 2% target through the end of this year. Gas prices are expected to keep rising, particularly now that the European Union has agreed to cut off 90% of its oil purchases from Russia. That will force the EU to buy more oil from elsewhere and drove oil prices to nearly $117 a barrel Tuesday.
This is only the fourth meeting between the president and the Federal Reserve chair, though Powell breakfasts as often as once a week with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Ahead of the meeting Biden pledged not to interfere in the Fed’s decision-making, but suggested that he and Powell are aligned on addressing inflation."
While that's good news – unity in leadership is comforting – it means little in the way of relief for consumers.
Trump Says He Knows an Easy Fix to Inflation Woes
But there may be good news for those who support former President Donald Trump – he has an answer for the inflation.
In March, the former president said it was a no brainer, per Newsweek; "… Trump said the country's soaring prices and other national and global problems would not be happening if Republican leaders took action on alleged vote fraud in the presidential election in Wisconsin and elsewhere. The email was in response to Wisconsin's ongoing investigation of the 2020 race's results.
'Our country would not be in the mess it's in if Republicans had the courage to act,' Trump wrote, referring to decertification of the election results in Wisconsin and other states. 'We would be energy independent, no inflation, the Ukraine desecration would not be happening, our economy would be strong, there would have been no surrender in Afghanistan, and so much else.'"
While it's true that inflation's biggest spike has coincided with the Democrat's ascent to the presidency, it's a complex scenario with multiple contributing factors.
Republicans have pointed to Biden's $1.9T COVID relief package as the main culprit for rising inflation. However, Trump himself signed nearly $3T in relief in the months before Biden took office.
Supply shortages and labor shortages have also contributed to the worsening of the inflation, bottlenecking goods and making demand far exceed supply.
While traditionally the Federal Reserve would tackle the rising inflation on their own, the system may be beyond their typical stopgap measures. Whether he wants to or not, the President may have to step in soon to make sure people can keep affording the basic necessities.