The real causes of artificially inflated gas prices are PRICE GOUGING and PROFITEERING during national emergencies due to CORPORATE GREED and not enough competition because anti-trust laws have not been enforced.
Yes, the supply-chain issues resulting from Trump’s failure to handle a pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine after Trump tried to undermine NATO (emboldening Putin) and block defense aid to Ukraine that had already been authorized by Congress (Trump’s quid-pro-quo extortion) have resulted in some degree of actual supply/demand imbalances that cause inflation. As a result, Putin thought he could further undermine and divide NATO by invading Ukraine, which backfired horribly, but put a further crimp in energy supply chains — another national emergency during which PROFITEERING and PRICE GOUGING should result in criminal prosecutions.
But when OBSCENE PROFITS by big energy corporations (along with many other bad actors in our economy) are many times greater, by orders of magnitude, than the rate of inflation, the main factor is PRICE GOUGING and PROFITEERING, and not merely natural supply-chain inflationary pressures.
Republicans complain about inflation and gas prices, but offer no remedial proposals of their own and will block any action by Democrats to address corporate excesses.
The real causes of artificially inflated gas prices are PRICE GOUGING and PROFITEERING during national emergencies due to CORPORATE GREED and not enough competition because anti-trust laws have not been enforced.
Yes, the supply-chain issues resulting from Trump’s failure to handle a pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine after Trump tried to undermine NATO (emboldening Putin) and block defense aid to Ukraine that had already been authorized by Congress (Trump’s quid-pro-quo extortion) have resulted in some degree of actual supply/demand imbalances that cause inflation. As a result, Putin thought he could further undermine and divide NATO by invading Ukraine, which backfired horribly, but put a further crimp in energy supply chains — another national emergency during which PROFITEERING and PRICE GOUGING should result in criminal prosecutions.
But when OBSCENE PROFITS by big energy corporations (along with many other bad actors in our economy) are many times greater, by orders of magnitude, than the rate of inflation, the main factor is PRICE GOUGING and PROFITEERING, and not merely natural supply-chain inflationary pressures.
Republicans complain about inflation and gas prices, but offer no remedial proposals of their own and will block any action by Democrats to address corporate excesses.