Elon Musk Knows a Thing or Two
The more I listen to what Elon Musk has to say, the more I like the guy. I mean, I have always said he's a bit nutty and I still stand by that. But I have also been very clear to say he is also a genius.
I admit to becoming more and more fascinated, so to speak by the whole Musk persona.
Forget that he's essentially a democrat. I happen to be a republican. But when he talks politics I like that he doesn't necessarily take a side—he's much like me in that way.
While most democrats will stick together hook, line and sinker through it all, republicans tend to be more critical of their leaders, holding them more to account for what they say and do.
We don't just tow the line is what I am saying. And so that makes Musk a little different than most democrats in that he doesn't either. That also makes what he has to say more interesting and more worth paying attention to. I tend to prefer a guy who believes what he is saying rather than just regurgitating what he is told to say or how to believe.
In other words, there is conviction to what he says and that gives what he says far more meaning.
And thus, while there are throngs of democrats in denial about the disaster that we call the Biden administration, a guy like Elon Musk is not so inclined to deny it and is willing to be outspoken about what's going wrong and why.
Which brings me to the problem of inflation and this idea that somehow it's not Biden's fault—the media will have you believing this started with Trump just because obviously they didn't like the guy.
But the reality is that there is a stark difference between the way the world looked, and especially the economy, under Trump and how it looks now under Biden. It's so stark a difference that you can only put the blame directly on policy differences between the Trump administration and the Biden administration.
There is no way to spin it without looking like an absolute imbecile.
Trump may have been a lot of things, but when it came to policy and the economy it is clear he knew what he was doing and had the right ideas. And I can say that with conviction as well considering how little Obama was able to accomplish in eight years—Trump made a significant turnaround in jobs and the economy in just a little over a year after taking office.
For all intents and purposes Trump actually found that magic wand that Obama joked Trump would have to use to get done what he said he wanted to get done.
Just as a side point to Mr. Obama, there was no magic in what Trump did.
There is a reason that we are having to deal with nearly 9% inflation here in the United States. A level we have not seen in four decades by the way. And while some might say, "Well, the entire world is dealing with inflation right now so its not just a U.S. thing," the fact remains that the U.S. is still the world's leading economy and so anything happening here affects the rest of the world.
The U.S. economy and the inflation we are experiencing is inextricably linked to the rest of the world. In fact, because we import so much stuff from other countries, the affect of inflation in other parts of the world only serves to further compound the problem here.
It's a vicious circle as they say and the circle was drawn and completed by the Biden administration.
"This administration doesn't seem to get a lot done," Elon Musk said. He was careful not to assign complete credit to Trump, rather stating that "there were a lot of people in the administration" good at getting things done. But of course Trump picked those people and he picked them in part because they were in line with what he wanted to get done.
The problem is with the money supply of course. That's really what got this ball rolling—and even not all of that is entirely on the shoulders of Biden. But certainly he has been printing money faster than anyone, and as Musk pointed out correctly, had his Build Back Better bill succeeded we'd see inflation even higher right now.
When the government writes checks they do not bounce, so if the revenues aren't there to back them up you have to simply make it up. The more you print the less each dollar in supply is generally worth until you wind up being Venezuela.
Musk also correctly points out that you can't simply tax your way out of inflation either, responding to the idea that the democrats are trying to say "inflation would be less if billionaires and their companies pay their fair share."
Beyond that Musk also understands that all you do when you tax the heck out of the rich and their businesses, consumers ultimately wind up paying for it anyway since all costs of business are simply passed along to the end users.
Businesses may write the checks that go to the tax man. But they collect what they pay from you and I. So, adding to the tax burden would not curb inflation. It would contribute to more of it.
Beyond that, part of the problem that we have that just makes matters even worse is that it appears that Biden is not even the guy running the country. Musk, along with many other Americans, do not know who is actually in charge. And so we have any number of people all sort of running roughshod in the White House with no one to tell them yes or no—they just do what they want with no center of gravity to hold them down or keep them on an effective agenda.
That simply means that the Biden administration is not equipped to fix the problem of inflation because while one hand is perhaps trying to fix it, the other hand is doing things that make it worse.
It's that vicious circle thing again.
It is clear that Musk is no fan of Biden policy and he has been quite vocal regarding the democrat party leading the country in the wrong direction, even pointing to California as once being the land of opportunity but now being overrun by failed policy that's doing no good for the people in California—the same can be said for the rest of the country.
He also alluded to the idea that without an above zero chance of republicans winning in California, the state is pretty much doomed. I think he's right about that.
Social politics aside, I think what Musk understands more than anything is that when it comes to the economy and the money supply and opportunity, the republicans have better ideas than democrats do and always have, and the proof is in the fact that the economy is generally better when republicans are in charge than when democrats are.
With one exception. John F. Kennedy. Kennedy applied conservative economics and Americans prospered for it.
I think what Musk is ultimately saying is that we are stuck with inflation for the foreseeable future until the "empty suit" is no longer sitting in the Oval Office. He is not saying we need a republican necessarily. But he sure seems to be strongly suggesting it.
