Plandemic? No! Panflation? Yes!

 Plandemic? No!  Panflation?  Yes!

Inflation, inflation, inflation... It's now in every news report and political commentary and is primarily used to bash Biden instead of enlightening the masses.   But inflation is like cats. Not all cats are the same. Some are the furry domesticated kind. Another, a man-eating Siberian tiger.   This current inflation is certainly a new hybrid cat.  It should be called ‘panflation’ for its unprecedented mix of factors.

I’m no economist but I do know that the global Covid19 pandemic worked like an X-ray exposing every flawed and broken system in our national and global governance systems.  Yet our current President is catching flack for it.

Massive injections of government money flowing into the economy started before he was elected.  And this inflation may not even be the primary cause of rising prices.  There are multiple factors involved.  Some directly related to the pandemic which the last President called a hoax.

Some companies have been raising prices due to “cost recovery fees” and “supply-chain surcharges”.  David Lazarus reported in the LA Times that when Bob Klatskin emailed Brinks home Security about a $1.97 “cost recovery fee” on top of his $4.0 monthly bill, he was told the fee was supposed to cover the “increased costs of providing service.” Klatskins’s Brinks contract states that total service costs won’t increase by more than 5 percent per year. But the new fee guarantees a higher price hike.  The Sherwin- Williams paint company recently added a 4% “supply chain charge” onto the bill at the cash register.

Technically, inflation is normally related to a good and growing economy.   Our economic growth is good (mainly for the well-off) and unemployment is falling.  The new infrastructure bill and BBB budget could improve that....but the pandemic certainly causes a loss of jobs that are slowly coming back. 

Consider the economic principle of “supply and demand”.

When supply is down, prices go up.  When demand is high, prices go up.  The hit on ‘supply’ currently is pandemic and employment-related brakes in supply chains. And pent-up demand is now going ballistic... also driving up prices.   The pre-covid “Just in time” delivery was crippled by several factors related to the pandemic.  Where production was halted to prevent the spread of the contagion, or the contagion infected the production making people sick or dead, there was bound to be less produced.  And those involved in shipping suffered similar reductions.  Demands for other services (food, transportation, entertainment...) also fell as trillions in economic assistance were pumped into the economy to prevent a collapse.  Some demands like home repairs, construction, and fitness movement went up as people were trapped at home with money to spend.  Further reducing supplies.  None of this was Biden’s fault.  Much could rightfully be put on those before him who ignored the decades of warnings or misinformed the public during the pandemic.

Understand that the highest rates of inflation of goods in the US are connected to energy and food.  And roughly a 5% rise in most other goods and services.   Energy and food are both essentials for a healthy economy and population.  Both are also heavily sourced from offshore then imported in.  

Agriculture prices normally fluctuate and are hard to pin to any common inflation numbers.  Prices went down for a while on oil...but now rising globally for a multitude of reasons.  Reasons mostly unrelated to Biden policies yet linked by creative political hacks. 

Other production and supply limiting factors include extreme weather events (droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding), cyber ransomware attacks (Colonial Pipeline), and human error (Suez Canal blockage).  These also are not Biden’s doing. 

With so many things limiting supplies in most products, prices were bound to rise.   

Here’s the reality.   Biden has a flotilla of problems to solve that could have been prevented if other US Presidents and elected members of both parties had listened to experts and taken collective action on their wise recommendations to prepare for pandemics or prevent climate change. 

 Unfortunately, short-term thinking of voters and those seeking votes doesn’t allow for preventive actions.  Our national desire for short-term ‘feel good’ solutions based on what we believe or ‘looks good’ to our tribe - is far more important than doing or being good in preventing costly policies like a 20-year war in Afghanistan, or how we treat each another. Consider our homeless problem. US military troops going hungry, or an opioid deaths crisis out of control.   Then there are those in dire need at our borders...because of our own failings in foreign policy for at least 4 decades in central and South America.  Sort-term feeling and looking good politics are NOT in our nation’s long-term interest.