Sunday, June 19, 2022

Bill Crawford: Temps, Prices, & Politics All Up

 What’s up doc? Well, Bugs, lots lately:

Heat, for sure. One hundred degree temps in June! Oh, my.

With that heat come higher electricity bills as air conditioners run at max levels. Oh, no, fuel costs will push those electricity bills even higher! Since costs for natural gas used to generate lots of our power are way up, fuel adjustments will be way up too. A year ago natural gas cost just over $3 per MCF, but recently the price has almost tripled.   

Gasoline prices. The price per gallon for regular unleaded topped $4 and is headed to $5. Wow! A year ago the average price was $2.73 per gallon.

Food prices. From May 2021 to May 2022 the cost of oranges is up 22%, coffee 21%, milk 17%, rice 14%, sugar 13%, ground beef 12%, bacon 10%, and so on.

Used car prices. The upsurge in used car prices seems to have slowed, but prices are still up 22% over last year.

Home mortgage rates. Rates for 30-year home mortgage loans surged over 5% and headed toward 6% last week. Just months ago rates were closer to 3%. 

Inflation. For the month of May the annual rate of inflation hit 8.6%, the highest level since December 1981. As a result, the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates – a half point in March followed by three-quarters of a point last week. That pushes up loan rates and credit card rates.

State tax collections. Through May state tax collections were on track to exceed last year’s total collections by over $500 million.

Politics. Political interest surged when two incumbent Republican congressmen struggled in their first primaries and now face difficult runoffs. Third District Congressman Michael Guest actually trailed upstart candidate Michael Cassidy though by less than one percentage point in their June 7 primary. The hot runoff issue appears to be Cassidy’s big spending proposals he posted on his web site – Medicare-for-all, marriage bonuses, and universal basic income (now suddenly deleted) – versus his desire to join the anti-spending House Freedom Caucus. Fourth District Congressman Steven Palazzo led his Republican primary with 32% of the vote followed by Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell with 25%. The hot issues here are the 68% who didn’t vote for Palazzo and the endorsements of Ezell by all four candidates who didn’t make the runoff.

The other hot political potato is who to blame for high prices. COVID-19 started it all. President Trump mishandled the response. Supply chain disruptions pushed up prices. Massive government spending, first by Trump and then by President Biden, further primed the inflation pump. Putin’s Ukraine war jacked up oil and gas prices and further disrupted supply chains. Then there is the Federal Reserve whose duty it is to control inflation. After installing its own massive free money stimulus during the pandemic, the Fed failed to taper once massive government spending kicked in.

Lots to choose from.

Regrettably, Bugs, this long hot summer will see lots more ups before things cool down.

“For each one shall bear his own load” – Galatians 6:5.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson

 

12 comments:

County Cletus said...

Yeah an on WJTV Right now a constitutional lawyer from Mississippi College said that Benny Thompson is the ideal man to run the January 6 hearrings. This guy is teaching our young. Benny Thompson is a POS whose only goal as an elected official is to enrich himself in this turd at Mississippi College think he’s qualified.

70s Ice Age Scare said...

The tree hugging wackos love this heat so they can spout "global warming" and "climate change."

Remember the "ice age" scare in the 70s?

Of course the climate has been changing since the beginning of time.

Anonymous said...

Remember10:38, those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach! I might add, this in my opinion does not refer to elementary through high school teachers of whom I have the utmost respect.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what the point of Crawford's article is/was supposed to be. All I could get from it was there must be someone to blame. He, as most of his kind do, got around to blaming Trump. It may very well be Trump's fault, but from where I sit, and many others also, Biden, and his policies, have done far more harm than Trump.

I am tired, of people, who ever they may be, from whatever political background, placing blame, for there's plenty to go around. What I want to hear/read is someone saying, blame, there is plenty, but here are the answers to these problems. I want solutions, not finger pointing, not fake outrage, and not political posturing. Crawford, as usual, never even looked in the direction of solutions.

Trump is no longer in office, blaming him will change nothing, nothing. Joe Biden is in office, has been for seventeen months, and he has only made things worse. The Democrats control both houses, and the presidency, leaving them with no excuse to not help the American people.

Anonymous said...

This article is littered with disinformation.

Anonymous said...

Democrats do not control the Senate. While VP Harris can break ties, there have been precious few. Manchin, Synema, et al. regularly vote with the Republicans .

Anonymous said...

Crawford ignores Biden's war on fossil fuels, the single most egregious driver of inflation throughout our economy and the world's.

Resume Trump's Energy policies and inflation could be cut in half in a few months.

Anonymous said...

DL Garner > Crawford
Not. Even. Close.

Anonymous said...

Are you saying the reason the Democrats don't do anything about inflation is because they don't control the Senate?

When Biden wants/wanted action on the implementation of his economy killing far-left agenda, he put pen to paper and pumped out Executive Orders, like the dictator his supporters want him to be. He used EO's then, why not now?

Not to mention the behind the scenes pressure put on lending institutions to not support oil drilling operations. It's easy to hide your suppression of US oil drilling by saying there are oil leases available, when you know there isn't money to support it.

By did I use oil drilling? The price of oil and the printing of money are the main drivers of inflation.

I won't point out the number of Republicans that often vote with the Democrats, that may embarrass you.

Anonymous said...

Boy you guys don’t see what the oil companies are doing, the U.S. Rig count is up by over 200 rigs from the same time last year. There is no shortage of leases or Oil. There is a basin that runs thru south Mississippi, I don’t know of any restricts on it. Why aren’t oil companies extracting it? Could it be that they are profiting at our expense? Could they be using those profits to invest in alternative fuels? Remember how big tobacco was brought to their knees, then they took over vaping and remain very profitable today.

Anonymous said...

We see very well what the oil companies are doing, and we also see what Joe Biden is doing, and not doing.

Can you read? The post directly above yours states that the money to support oil production is not readily available. This is because Biden, and the green energy cabal, have restricted the monies to support oil production. Do you dispute this?

As you may, or may not, know, your feckless hero, Biden, in an open letter to American oil companies made the same ignorant, blame avoiding, accusations, about profits, concerning refineries. You are only parroting the party line.

In an open rebuttal to Biden, the American Petroleum Institute, and the American Fuel & Petroleum Manufacturers stated, U.S. refineries are currently operating at 94% capacity, which is among the highest utilization rates in the world, and that prices for oil products are set on world markets, not by American companies.

Those that voted for Biden are getting exactly what you voted for. Biden made it plain, during his campaign, he intended to do harm to oil production. He is only working with those around the world whose agenda is to rid the world of what they deem unclean energy. He is fully aware and unconcerned of the harm his policies are doing.

One more thing, concerning the remark made by Biden's cabinet officials, and a few ignorant liberals on this board, that the owners of EVs aren't affected by high fossil fuel prices. Electricity is produced by three sources, one of which is nearly phase out, coal. That leaves nuclear and natural gas, with natural gas being the predominant source to fire electric plants. Natural gas prices have nearly tripled in price in the last year. Did you think they were giving that electric power away?

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/natural-gas-prices-tripled-diesel-oil-2021-almost-no-ceiling-2022-5

That'sMisterDeplorableToYou said...

@10:38
Thompson's district is the delta and it is just as backwards, depressed, illiterate and impoverished as it was the day he took office nearly 30 years ago. I'm not aware of anything he has done or even tried to do to attract industry or employment to the area. He seems content with funneling in more and more welfare money.

The delta, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is essentially Jackson, only more spread out and less densely populated.



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