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this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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I felt like I was losing my mind screaming about all the things the government could of been doing during the insane covid era inflation. What Biden could of done instead of cranking up interest rates... but hey gotta turn the screws on all the poverty stricken folks with credit card debt so they can barely afford to live.
could have*
Jesus this place is toxic
What should they have done instead?
Price controls as mentioned in the post, likely one of the most effective things. Aggressively prosecuting companies for price gauging would also send a clear message. When there's a huge surge of unemployment and companies are making record profits for no reason other than greed there's a lot of things that can be done but they aren't "capitalism" so they're bad.
If we're staying closer to neolibralism than OPs post you seemingly refused to read; winfall tax, uae said tax revenue to provide inflation relief.
What should they of done*
The president doesn't control interest rates (though they'd like to). The federal reserve bank independently decides interest rate changes to fulfill its dual mandate. Arguably, they should have started raising rates sooner, but the belief at the time was that inflation was transitory in nature. The executive branch could have tried to do more, but regulatory capture over the past decades has castrated the government's ability to effectively control business (instead, the inverse is true: business controls government policy). Blaming the corrupt cogs (or, even worse, the "other team") for a broken machine is useless. Instead, lose your mind screaming about all the things your local government should be doing, educate yourself and get involved in local politics, and start changing corrupt policies to rebuild from the bottom up. The other way is never going to happen, so all you'll accomplish there is making yourself hoarse.
If you think the president isn't heavily leaning on the fed and having a strong say in how interest rates go I've got a bridge to sell you.
Early in trump presidency when they should of been drastically cranking up interest rates. They stayed pretty fucking stable because the big orange turd threw a fit about them being raised. Biden could easily exert influence. The fed is way less indepent than it should be.
After 4 years of the fed making poor decisions at Trump's direction, I'm totally fine with Biden being hands off and letting the experts turn the dials