Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Drill baby drill!

One of the ironies in this election is how Harris(Biden) cannot crow at all about the US achieving record oil production under their watch.  Were Trump still President, obviously he'd be pointing to that as a major accomplishment.  But Harris has to sweep it under a rug.

I'd like to sweep Harris under the rug

the price of fuel for travel and shipping has  a bit to do with inflation and the economy

Trump's tax cuts could expire after 2025. How advisors are preparing (cnbc.com)
Trump's tax cuts could expire after 2025. How advisors are preparing (cnbc.com)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults are more likely than the overall U.S. population to view legal immigration as an asset to the country’s economy and workforce, according to a new poll.

When it comes to the risks posed by illegal immigration, though, their views are similar to those of Americans overall.

About 8 in 10 AAPI adults say legal immigration to the U.S. is a “major benefit” contributing to economic growth, a survey released Monday by AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds. In comparison, around 4 in 10 Americans overall felt the same way in an AP-NORC poll conducted in March. Similarly, around three-quarters of AAPI voters say skilled expertise in science and technology is a major benefit of legal immigration, compared with about 4 in 10 Americans in March.


https://apnews.com/article/poll-aapi-kamala-harris-donald-trump-election-immigration-3ea9472f4742e15e3979c38c68c1e59c

The polling results come as former President Donald Trump, with less than a month until Election Day, continues to focus on the threat of immigration in his presidential campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican recently falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had no money to help Hurricane Helene survivors because it was spent on programs for undocumented immigrants. During the presidential debate last month, Trump amplified a false rumor that Haitians living legally in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets. The debunked claims led to bomb threats to schools and government buildings, and drew on a long history in the U.S. of maligning immigrant communities through their food.

I had no idea that Columbus day was a big deal in parts of the country until I was much older.  We learned a little about it in school, but it was kind like St. Patrick's day (another no Big Deal day in Texas for me) and some other almost a holiday type days.  

Some interesting thoughts on inflation, since many people here have strongly held beliefs about it's cause(s):
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-caused-the-u-s-pandemic-era-inflation/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20most%20of%20the,shift%20in%20demand%20during%20the
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/11/high-inflation-is-largely-not-bidens-or-trumps-fault-economists-say.html
https://www.nber.org/digest/20239/unpacking-causes-pandemic-era-inflation-us
https://gfmag.com/data/economic-data/worlds-highest-lowest-inflation-rates/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1034154/monthly-inflation-rates-developed-emerging-countries/
https://www.dw.com/en/beating-inflation-how-do-europe-and-the-us-compare/a-68976653

In 2020, the Trump administration passed two economic stimulus bills totaling approximately $3 trillion to counteract the economic impacts of COVID. The 2021 bill (American Resuce Plan, or ARP) that the Biden administration ushered through spent $1.9 trillion to counteract the economic impacts of the COVID shutdowns in 2020.

A fair summary appears to be that global supply chain interruptions resulting from the COVID pandemic caused most of the increase in inflation, with an assist from the Russian war on Ukraine (which increased energy costs), but both the CARES Act (Trump) and the ARP(Biden) resulted in additional increases in the inflation rate. Notably, inflation in the US, since mid-2022, has generally come down faster than in other industrialized nations. That has largely been the result of a strong U.S. economy.

I haven't seen a study that balances the impact of the relief the CARES act and the ARP made for businesses shuttered by COVID, the unemployed, underemployed, and low-income (primarily service industry) workers versus the relative impact all of that federal spending had on the already spiking inflation rate. That's the kind of thing that is pretty difficult for us mere mortals to sort out, but is pretty important when actually evaluating the pros and cons of federal policy.

Not that it will change anyone's mind about the upcoming election...

Curiously, the people charged with managing inflation (the Fed, at least here in the U.S.) were not as convinced at the time.

Also, I haven't seen anyone take on the question: should the U.S. government have simply let everyone deal with the economic consequences of COVID without help? And what would the economics of that have looked like?

(It's always fair to point out that federal spending includes unnecessary bloating, BUT it's also fair to point out that government spending bills are necessarily--even when passed with only a single party's support--the result of negotiations; that necessarily will include spending that not everyone agrees is necessary.)