Another Perspective on Inflation
November 11, 2022
Shall we blame Joe Biden?
A recent broadcast (11/10/22) on National Public Radio focused on data compiled by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group that tracks money in politics. They determined that the 2022 election was the most expensive midterm election ever.
They estimated that candidates and political action committees spent nearly $17 Billion on state and federal campaigns https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/total-cost-of-2022-state-and-federal-elections-projected-to-exceed-16-7-billion/
One key reason they cite is the 2010 Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court which reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds to influence election outcomes, at the federal, state and local level.
Although political spending likely is just a tiny component of inflation, please stop for a minute to think about how unlimited spending on political issues could be a major contributor to inflation.
Two of the biggest spenders in the 2022 election were men who rose to Billionaire status because of Crypto and the tech sector: Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) spent $38 Million, and Larry Ellison (Oracle) spent $ 31 Million.Hard left, hard right: It really doesn’t matter. The concept of ‘one man, one vote’ is completely at odds with ‘one man, big checkbook’.
Add to that the mystery and magic of speculative, irrational and unrealistic economic bubbles such as (a) Dot-com (2000); (b) Great Recession (2007) {which ended in June 2009, followed by 128 months of economic expansion}; (c) Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017); which was then followed by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Both Sam and Larry became crazy rich as a result of irrational exuberance. The money they injected into U.S. political campaigns wasn’t ‘real money’ — it wasn’t money they earned honestly through hard work – whether physical or intellectual, or both. They fooled some of the people long enough to score a major win, no different from a Lottery winner.
Then, each of them used some of their Lottery winnings to create an artificial and unsustainable injection into the U.S. political arena.
Here we have a real and irrefutable example of why the Citizens United decision is in direct opposition to the essence of our Democratic Republic.
When it is convenient, some members of SCOTUS revert to the concept of “Originalism” to help solidify their decisions. The Citizens United decision has absolutely zero connection to Originalism; the founding fathers; or any other precedent I’ve been able to find.The Tillman Act (1907) explicitly prohibited corporations and national banks from contributing money to federal campaigns for very good reasons. What has changed since then, I wonder?
Here is an interesting timeline on the evolution of our political contribution system which helps tell the story on how bad characters can be empowered by dark money and create unintended consequences which have huge negative impacts on ‘the rest of us’…..
walrus51 