Are we all having fun yet? That’s a question that’s going to become front and center as the realities of Joe Biden’s presidency become more apparent.
The stock market is currently collapsing, with the Dow Jones sitting at -926 points as I type this. This, as there was already massive downward pressure on the middle class due to rising inflation. Today’s drop is being pinned on fears that the Delta variant of COVID will depress the economy further, possibly because of more lockdowns.
This is what happens when you have a president and an administration that is absolutely incoherent when it comes to COVID messaging. Had the White House stood up and followed the science, denouncing the idea of future ineffective lockdowns from the beginning, investors wouldn’t be panicking right now. Instead, we have a mishmash of proclamations around how the economy will be treated if cases of the Delta variant continue to grow.
Of course, Biden’s lack of a coherent message also eschews the fact that the vaccine and natural immunity protect against the Delta variant when talking about symptoms and the risk of serious illness and death. With over 60% of the country vaccinated and some large percent also enjoying natural immunity, it is just not likely that we’ll see anything justifying widespread mitigation again. Case numbers are largely irrelevant and have been for a long time.
Never fear, though. With people on edge, Biden took to the podium to make matters even worse with an unbelievably tone-deaf and economically illiterate response.
Absolutely hilarious, right? It is not capitalism’s fault that the stock market is tumbling. Rather, it’s the fault of an incompetent, overbearing government that may or may not arbitrarily decide to crush the economy again. That kind of buck-passing by Biden has become a predominant theme of his administration.
Meanwhile, with inflation fears worsening everything, Biden once again chose to mislead people.
There is no evidence the current inflation crisis is temporary, and Biden’s claim that no “serious” economist thinks unchecked inflation is on the way is false, largely because that unchecked inflation is already here. Anyone who doesn’t have the government paying for all their expenses has felt that from the grocery store to the gas pump. Even Biden’s own Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, has expressed concerns about the inflation we are seeing. Is she not a serious economist?
We are in trouble, folks. This senile old man is not going to lead the country out of this malaise. Worse, Biden and his policies are largely the cause of it. All he had to do was take office, stop talking, and get out of the way, and the economy would have roared. Instead, he and the Democrats spent trillions, caused inflation, and now their lack of leadership is causing a stock market crisis. It’s a bad scene and one that was totally preventable.