Inflation, Biden, and Vaccine Mandates
Workplace vax mandates aren't only unjust, they're also hugely Inflationary
What spurs the sudden, massive rise in Inflation? As we live with the abrupt reality of America’s first serious Inflationary surge since the 1970s, our citizens and policymakers must immediately assess the causes of these price spikes and the correct remedies.
Reacting to these new, harsh realities, financial markets open the post MLK holiday week with considerable volatility, as Crude Oil ascends to fresh 7-year highs and the concomitant Inflation worries send Interest Rates soaring, with US Treasury Ten Year Yield vaulting to a fresh 2 year high at 1.85%.
Now, by historical standards, Yields below 2% may seem tame. But present Interest Rates must be viewed in light of more recent years. In the latest era of super low Interest Rates, consider that Yields on the benchmark 10 Year Note have more than doubled since Joe Biden prevailed on November 3, 2020. A move from 0.80% then to 1.85% now puts incredible stress on markets and, indeed, the whole tenuous economic recovery.
As evidence of this stress, notice that the shares of giant Wall St. financial institutions suddenly trade very poorly. These former market leaders now revert to laggards, and the ETF from I-Shares, the IAI basket of large broker/dealers, descends a stunning 4% to open this week, as of this writing – and that ETF has declined 10% off of the all-time highs of just weeks ago in November.
As I have pointed out repeatedly, the primary culprit for the sudden surge in Inflation lies with Biden and his crony cohorts on Capitol Hill, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. They took a federal leviathan that was already spending too much -- and put the borrow-and-spend binge on steroids. Biden poured money on an economy that did not need capital, as proven generally sluggish credit demand. So, instead of spurring growth, Biden’s profligacy only stoked massive Inflation, all while instituting huge disincentives to productive work.
A significant obstacle to work remains the unscientific and unethical workplace vaccine mandates that continue to vex millions of Americans. While the recent Supreme Court victory for the rule of law was welcome, and defanged the onerous and unconstitutional Biden directives to private companies, tens of millions of citizens in America are still subject to invasive vax mandates as a precondition to simply earning a living. At the government level, brave military fighters are still being forced from service. Nearly all healthcare workers in America are still subject to federal edicts, thanks to the cowardice of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In addition, massive private corporations did not change their policies at all following the Supreme Court decision against Biden. For example, financial behemoth Citibank maintained its deadline for workers to disclose their personal health decisions or be fired. Like all other large banks, Citi was saved by taxpayers during the Housing/Credit Crisis…and now Citibank summarily pays Americans back by enforcing a capricious and illogical Medical Apartheid mandate as a condition of employment.
But such mandates are not only unjust, they are also massively inflationary. The fallout of vaccine mandates has been particularly acute in many vital segments of the American supply chain that has been so badly stressed and distorted in recent months. Truckers and port workers have been very resistant to forced vaccinations, or at least forced disclosures. These intrusive mandates turned an already tight labor market into a crisis one for many key businesses and created backlogs in the supply network that continue to impair the normal flow of goods.
As is typically the case, Small Business has suffered disproportionately from these onerous rules, inspired by Biden. In a recent survey of small business conducted by the Jobs Creators Network, respected pollsters Scott Rasmussen and John McLaughlin revealed just how badly the vax rules have afflicted small business.
On the broader issue of virus restrictions, a jarring 82% reported that they were concerned about “government mandates impacting businesses." But perhaps even more ominously, fully 61% responded that vaccine mandates “make it harder to find employees.” Interestingly, these concerns were especially acute among minority and women owned enterprises. Fully 68% of female entrepreneurs and 72% of black and Hispanic small business owners fear that vaccine mandates make it harder to find willing workers.
So, as I mentioned briefly in my earlier article concerning Inflation, ending ALL vaccine mandates related to employment represents a foundational priority for the America First movement. It remains an imperative to protect medical privacy, plus stop the unethical and arbitrary injustice of pressuring people to inject themselves with a treatment that does not stop transmission to others.
In addition to these concerns, vaccine mandates have been massively Inflationary, discouraging a return to full employment, and delaying a fully-functioning supply chain that fills our shelves while constraining pricing pressures in the economy.
The flawed Keynesian premise, that "stimulus spending" lifts people out of poverty and creates economic growth, is trotted out to justify all inefficient reallocation of resources.
Poverty is erased by economic opportunity either born of individual initiative, or work opportunities that are a consequence of capital formation that leads to businesses that need employees. Extra “stimulus payments” could never realistically lead to capital formation precisely because they’re “spending money” or helicopter drops of money. Translated for those who need it, no business is going to expand or attract investment for expansion based on a helicopter drop. For businesses to expand, they need savings.
To believe that government payments erase poverty is the old broken-window fallacy of Frederic Bastiat — seeing only immediate and obvious effects while ignoring the hidden, long-run effects.
Statism relies on fooling people into believing that government can cure poverty, stimulate growth, control prices, and do lots of other economic magic. Government meddling wastes resources, by definition and distorts incentives, thereby impeding actions that actually do erase poverty — entrepreneurship and investment. Which industries will be protected or essential or arbitrarily locked down next year? What will the supply lines look like in a year?