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President Joe Biden is demanding businesses and corporations stop “price gouging” as they continue to combat higher inflation, and for his troubles, he earned a Community Notes fact check on X.
Biden first made the assertion early this week in announcing a new White House supply chain initiative.
“Any corporation that has not brought their prices back down, even as inflation has come down, even as the supply chains have been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price gouging,” Biden said. “Give the American consumer a break.”
It was a line so good in the eyes of the President’s social media handlers that they used a version of it in an X post on Thursday.
The post began with an oft-used phrase of Biden’s – “Let me be clear” – which his critics contend is a tell that he is about to sell the American people a bridge.
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Biden Badly Misinformed On Inflation
President Biden’s post on rising costs, price gouging, and inflation in general earned him a Community Note on X – the social media platform’s version of a fact-check or added context provided by readers.
The Note provided several links and commentary suggesting that the President does not understand basic economic concepts.
“As long as the inflation rate is positive, prices are increasing,” it reads. “The fact that inflation has come down to 3.2% in October means that prices are still going up, albeit at a slower rate than before.”
Indeed, while it’s true that the annual rate of inflation has cooled from its scorching hot summer numbers, this doesn’t translate directly into falling consumer prices.
Businesses aren’t “price gouging,” they’re trying to keep pace. In order to do so they wouldn’t “bring prices back down” as Biden suggests, they’d raise them at a slower rate to match the 3.2% cost increases.
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Biden Hammered By Critics Pointing Out His Fundamental Misunderstanding
Aside from the X Community Note, several viewers responded to President Biden’s comments on inflation and price gouging rather harshly.
RedState author Bonchie replied, “Do you not understand how inflation works?”
He does not, in fact, appear to understand how inflation works.
“‘Listen, Jack, just lower your prices’ is a helluva economic strategy,” quipped online personality Damin Toell.
“Inflation going down doesn’t reduce prices, just lowers the rate of increase. Are you stupid or do you think voters are?” another user asked.
And the answer to that question is “Yes.”
Since Biden took office, Americans have seen a 17.6 percent price hike overall, with food prices up 20.9 percent, rent up 18 percent, and electricity up 24.7 percent. All of which has contributed to a three percent real pay cut.
Prices are astronomically high under Biden, and Americans know it — because they see it every single day. A recent report by Intuit Credit Karma shows that 96% of Americans “are concerned about the current state of the economy.”
Seeing outlandish price tags for the basic necessities of life has been so depressing to the American consumer that they are “doom spending” and perhaps artificially inflating economic activity that will later crash when they run out of savings and/or credit cards.
This isn’t the first time that the Biden administration sought to blame high prices on businesses rather than on their own economically illiterate platforms. Does anybody remember when they were going after “meat conglomerates” for soaring food prices?
Businesses are bad, it seems, in the eyes of this administration. And the only thing that can save you is the government.
A government that doesn’t even understand how inflation works on a fundamental level.
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