The letter “Real impacts” from June 14 was irritating. It implied that the impact of problems today is to be redressed by pointing the finger at the current administration. This habit of just blaming the present leaders for everything that is currently wrong while ignoring everything that precedes them is childish. It’s like blaming Donald Trump for record unemployment levels in April 2020.
I will grant that inflation is high due to the overzealous injection of money into the economy, though I do not envy the people who try to control and predict macroeconomics. Grocery prices reflect this, so it’s redundant to list that as an issue.
The stock market has recently crashed because the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate to address inflation, and financial markets are fickle. Also, interesting that the author conveniently neglected to mention that the stock market is still higher than at any point under the previous administration. The truth here is that politics has a minimal impact on the markets.
The baby formula shortage is due to a massive recall and supply chain issues, and the current administration has taken measures to address this. I’m not sure who’s “fault” this is and what better policy there could have been.
Yes, the price of oil is high, but being a net exporter would not solve this issue. Our refineries do not process solely oil that we extract, and thus we still need to import. Therefore, there are some geopolitics at play here that greatly affect prices, including an ongoing war with the world’s second-largest producer of oil.
As for Trump, there are many ways that he is still hurting this country, his direct attack on democracy being the big one. He should very much be a concern.
— Kevin De Michelis
Anchorage
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