Just mashing buttons

Logistical supply of goods and services is not a magical thing that just happens. Americans' extremely limited understanding of economics and markets (it's all done by some invisible hand of God or something!) is one reason why people can't get their heads around what "inflation" is. It's also what gums up the works politically such that the only possible policy response is for the democratically unaccountable bankers at the Federal Reserve to just mash a button.  What does the button do, though?  David Dayen says it pretty well. 

In fact, the rationing doesn’t stop with formula and vaccines; it’s our formal economic policy. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes to stop inflation are designed to “tamp down demand,” a euphemism for throwing people out of work in the hopes that millions will lack enough money to buy things. The current strategy is to ration our way through inflation, despite the fact that interest rates can’t end lockdowns in China or halt the war in Ukraine, the primary current drivers of the price squeeze.

What this comes back to is that public policy has relied—absurdly—on belief in an automatic process of capitalism, where shortages not only shouldn’t but cannot happen. When that internalized promise is not kept, people get really damn angry about it, and they should. They should know that it’s the result of decades of bad policy: monopolization, centralization of production, lax regulatory response. Until we recognize this deficiency and start re-engineering policy to ensure the general welfare, that anger will reap a whirlwind in November and beyond.

An angry "whirlwind" whipped up through a public deliberately kept ignorant by an aloof ruling class indifferent to its suffering is not going to be a good time for anybody.  But don't worry. They've got another button to mash on if that starts to get out of hand.  It's the one that buys more cops. 

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday urged states and cities to use unspent money from last year’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief package to fund crime prevention programs and hire police officers.

The president stressed the need for more funding of public safety programs at a White House event with mayors and law enforcement officials.

“To every governor, every mayor, every county official, the need is clear, my message is clear: Spend this money now; use these funds we made available to you; prioritize public safety,” Biden said. “Do it quickly before the summer, when crime rates typically surge.”

COVID numbers are already going up, the supply of masks and vaccines is running low, and the Democrats just decided it was more important to spend $40 billion on a war in Europe. Now, as the Fed prepares to deliberately induce a recession, the President wants to spend money already allocated for COVID relief on a war at home. It's going to be an interesting summer.