IndianaLocalNews

Economic troubles could be worse

Image by S K from Pixabay
Inflation, supply and demand have been causing some economic trouble this year, but one Hoosier economist says overall, it could be worse.
“Overall, you gotta be happy,” says Michael Hicks, economist at Ball State University talking to IndyPolitics, “growth rate for third quarter looks to be about 2.6-percent nationally, which is really strong.”
Hicks also points to several other financial factors, including a month-to-month inflation decrease, from about eight-and-a-half percent to six-and-a-half percent. Hicks says the unemployment rate is also at about 3.5-percent, and even some industries that are beginning to have a little trouble, such as the RV industry, are set to do record business this year.
The Federal Reserve would like to see the inflation rate drop to about 2.5-percent, says Hicks. You’ll see Democrats and Republicans blaming one another for the 40-year record high rise in inflation, but Hicks says you can track the origins of inflation to the Trump administration, which continued through the Biden administration.
Hicks explains, “just to go back in history, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from the Trump administration cut taxes without paying for them. That’s inflationary, that’s a demand side pressure. We started to see that in 2018 and 2019 as interest rates went up. At the same time, we imposed a huge tariff, which is a tax on American consumers who bought Chinese goods. That was about 300-billion dollar extra tax that the supply side shot that caused prices to go up. And the spring of 2021, after President Biden took office and the House and Senate were in Democrat hands, they passed another pandemic stimulus that added yet more money to households based on data that suggested the economy was not recovering as robustly.”
Hicks says you combine both actions from each presidency, along with the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s effect on the unemployment rate, bad luck, and the current war between Russia and Ukraine, it’s been a perfect storm for economic hardship.

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2 comments

Charles U Farley November 28, 2022 at 2:17 pm

Hicks needs to sue whoever he got his degree from, because he got ripped off. Tax cuts do not cause inflation, creating dollars out of thin air does. Trump was forced into some of that because of the COVID debacle, but the driving force behind fiat currency creation has been the Biden regime. Half of all money in circulation was created in the last 2 years, and THAT is why we are seeing inflation (actually currency devaluation).

Hicks is just a leftist apologist, which is why he was talking to IndyPolitics in the first place.

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Slacker06 November 28, 2022 at 3:04 pm

This is what happens when we elect socialists, Marxicrats, or full fledged Rinos to public office. When they cannot follow their oath of office We The People are in great peril.

We have constitutions for a reason. They are designed not to create rights but to prevent governments at any level from taking our rights.

When you have a few moments read Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Then ask yourself if the vast and powerful Federal Government is living within those 18 enumerated powers.

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