Newsline

Newsline , Society

“Greenflation” Wreaking Havoc on U.S. Economy

Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2023
|
by Ben Solis
|
54 Comments
|
Print

AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

U.S.

Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve once again raised interest rates by 25 basis points – the 10th consecutive rate increase as inflation remains a persistent problem. While President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have blamed everything from COVID-19 to former President Donald Trump for the crisis, mounting evidence points to Democrats’ obsession with the “greenification” of the U.S. economy as a major source of the inflation facing the country today.

Some economists were optimistic last week that the Fed’s most recent rate hike could be the last amid persistent market turmoil and renewed pressure from lawmakers to back off. Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, said, “the bar for [the Fed] to raise rates again any time soon is high.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell also hinted that this most recent rate hike might be the last, while still leaving the door open to raising rates again in June and pushing back strongly on suggestions that the Fed could be lowering rates by the end of the year. “It will take some time,” Powell said regarding the question of when inflation will come down. “And in that world, if that forecast is broadly right, it would not be appropriate to cut rates and we won’t cut rates.”

But even Powell’s guarded optimism may belie the stark reality facing the U.S. economy in the months ahead. As renowned economist Milton Friedman once remarked, inflation is a result of inaccurate assessment of the true cost of government policies as much as it is a result of government spending itself.

That indeed seems to be the case with Democrats’ “green subsidies,” which have been packed into all of the spending bills passed over the last two years. As the Wall Street Journal reported in March, the green subsidies in the inaccurately-named “Inflation Reduction Act,” which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would cost $391 billion, are now predicted to cost a staggering $1.2 trillion – meaning that inflation analyses used by the Fed woefully underestimate the scope of the problem.

In addition, Biden’s increasingly onerous environmental regulations are forcing companies to adopt expensive and inefficient changes to their business practices, drastically increasing costs across virtually every sector.

All of those costs will be directly passed on to American taxpayers in the form of inflation. The biggest winners, meanwhile, will be domestic and foreign companies and interest groups who have the environmental movement’s stamp of approval.

Biden’s big handouts to “green” companies couldn’t have come at a better time for them, as the environmentalists’ grip on corporate America through “environmental, social, and governance,” or ESG investing, was beginning to slip.

Amid pressure from conservative lawmakers and declining profits last year, many of the world’s biggest investment firms began quietly reversing course and buying up stakes in coal, oil, and natural gas companies. In a 2022 public letter, BlackRock, which holds $10 trillion in client funds and was a leader in the shift toward ESG investing, touted its $260 billion investment in fossil fuel companies around the world.

Investment group AQR Capital Management has also predicted that the classic balanced portfolio of 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds will return just two percent annually after inflation within the next decade – less than half the average profit generated annually over the previous century. This declining return is a direct result of a left-wing political agenda rather than a company’s actual performance and financial success driving investment.

As it turns out, ESG investing is so unprofitable that many banks have fossil fuel companies in investment portfolios ostensibly dedicated to “green” entities. A report by think tank Common Wealth last year found that BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors, and Legal and General Investment Management had almost $1 billion invested in companies involved in oil, gas and coal across their ESG ETFs.

As ESG funds struggled to turn consistent profits, the Biden administration was forced to swoop in and offer a taxpayer-funded bailout to the green industrial complex. The cost of this bailout is the inflation that crossed nine percent last year and still sits more than three times above the Fed’s target rate of 2 percent.

Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has predicted that the global obsession with the “greening” of the economy, a phenomenon now led by the United States under Biden, will mean that high inflation is a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future. He explained that companies benefitting from economically ineffective and inefficient projects through applying for green subsidies has fundamentally flipped free-market principles on their head, an arrangement that is sure to invite economic chaos.

Green subsidies are also raising costs for Americans in other ways. According to professor Brenda Schaffer, a research faculty member at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, the reason for the world’s current energy crisis is divestment from fossil fuel companies despite their continued profitability. This has led to an artificial increase in fuel and energy costs, which has in turn driven prices of other goods higher.

Nonetheless, the Biden administration has continued to plow ahead with its far-left green agenda. In a viral exchange with Louisiana Senator John Kennedy last week, Biden Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk couldn’t even provide an answer for how much it would cost to make the United States “carbon neutral.”

The estimated cost, as Senator Kennedy informed Tusk, was somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 trillion dollars. But if the last few years are any indication, the real price might be the financial well-being of tens of millions of ordinary Americans.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.

We hope you've enjoyed this article. While you're here, we have a small favor to ask...

The AMAC Action Logo

Support AMAC Action. Our 501 (C)(4) advances initiatives on Capitol Hill, in the state legislatures, and at the local level to protect American values, free speech, the exercise of religion, equality of opportunity, sanctity of life, and the rule of law.

Donate Now
Share this article:
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
54 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Samuel
Samuel
1 year ago

… this is our punishment. We didn’t vote for Hillary. So now, we must be punished. That’s the Biden Administration’s attitude in Washington DC. Deluged illegal immigration, electric cars shoved down our throats, inflation, crushing Main Street USA back into the stone age with an assault on our gas stoves, this is our punishment –

Myrna Wade
Myrna Wade
1 year ago

The last line is what is more and more true. We are already paying the price for a scheme that was never viable.

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
1 year ago

Those pushing “Green” DONT even drive EVs or solar homes etc who can pay for
Tired of the BS
No energy=No Grid= No EVs

Veteran
Veteran
1 year ago

What we are witnessing is not just inflation, or the Green Agenda, it is the largest willfully committed and calculated crime in American history: the deliberate bankrupting of a country, the dissolution of our border and national identity, to further the communist ideological agenda, enrich those who aim to profiteer from the resulting anarchy by stealing what they can, and replace the representative Republic with global communist tyranny, and dictatorship.

nate
nate
1 year ago

The great green hoax is a global power and control grab. There are plenty of willing stooges who buy into their own destruction.

Mike S
Mike S
1 year ago

The only way to control the rabid Democrats and their propensity for deficit spending is a BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT. The concern in this article about the evils of inflationary spending (now being referred to as Greenflation) has been spoken about by more intelligent people than me time after time after time. Yet nothing changes in Washington and the insanity continues. To me, the only way to restore honesty in Washington and force Congress to do its job and set priorities is for a Convention of States. Under Article V of the Constitution, this is permitted. Congress does not have the wherewithal to do it and the framers of the Constitution had the foresight to recognize this fact. It allows the people of individual states to impose their will over Congress and the President.

Tim Toroian
Tim Toroian
1 year ago

nate, below, is right about it being a power grab. More people should be reading or re-reading “Atlas Shrugged” to get an idea of how bad things can get when the government controls the allocation of resources. Then check the USSR for a live example.

Rik
Rik
1 year ago

Comrade President Jack*ss Joe Biden ISN’T going to STOP DESTROYING the AMERICAN ECONOMY anytime soon. He has already established himself as the WORST PRESIDENT EVER! . . . Either he is just STUPID or is really trying to DESTROY AMERICA with his CRAZY POLICIES or BOTH! . . . I haven’t had less respect for any President since Obama!

Gabe Hanzeli
Gabe Hanzeli
1 year ago

Biden has done everything possible to cause the american economy to go bad. his EO’s on oil production that started the massive inflation, his reckless spending, his spending to briber voters to vote for him, his attacks on diesel and trucking that caused shortages, his push for Chinese ev’s to replace american union workers, and his gas stove regulations all created inflation and the job reductions. Then he added in two tax increases while democrat states also all added new taxes further increased the cost of living.

Here is a little note for you democrats that think any of this green movement is good. Everything that increases costs in the USA reduces our ability to complete internationally. Example: other then in western Europe and american the rest of the world is still buying vehicles that are the same technology as the cars we sold in 1960. they cost a fourth of our cars and are easy to maintain. most of those countries have half the tax rate of the usa. most have almost not building regulations or pollution regulations. That means a factory or software worker in those countries can be paid 1.4 of what is required in the usa and still live better then in the usa. We cannot compete because the Democrats (democratic’s / democracy) have made our cost of living too high.

Ann S
Ann S
1 year ago

This greening of America is nothing more than supporting the solar panels and windmill industries. They have no workable plan to replace fossil fuel. This is an experiment to bankrupt the oil industry in the name of climate change. But it will not work and America will be destroyed and no greener than when they started this whole green new deal. Their goal reached.

paul edward vanleeuwen
paul edward vanleeuwen
1 year ago

go to CFACT and learn all about the windmills and the solar not all that good for animals and people plus you will still need oil for 95% of your electricity the us gov is LYING!!!!!

Kdesq
Kdesq
1 year ago

I hate every single thing about the Democrat party. I despise their literally stupid voters. I despise the stupid rino voters on “our side” because the fall for every lie as well. The fact people can see pictures from 150 years ago and see no sea level rise compared to today. The list of lies is almost endless from the climate slime.

Jackie
Jackie
1 year ago

I think that’s what Obama was trying to get started but the companies he chose to support with his bailouts failed him and us! This is also kinda proof that Obama may be part of the puppet masters who are behind Biden and this insanity!! The “green agenda” is strictly on Biden and the Democrats! Some of this ‘green agenda’ isn’t really ready for prime time yet anyway and they are rushing it! The fact that they want to continue this expensive agenda while we are in the throws of their inflationary, recessionary economy shows just how little that they either don’t understand economics or they don’t care what’s happening to our country OR they are doing all of this on purpose and for the purpose of destroying our country!!

I still believe that Biden, Soros, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, etc. have already invested in the companies that stand to profit from all of this ‘greenery’! That’s why they are pushing this agenda! They aren’t concerned about the planet, they are looking to make a fortune off of our misery!!!!

Carol
Carol
1 year ago

Going green so fast will kill off the middle class which is exactly what these leftist want. Everyone will be poor while the Biden Admin and their minions will be in total power! Game, set, match!

sdgort
sdgort
1 year ago

We have to get rid of these evil bottom feeding, filthy demoncrats that are fast destroying America!!!
IF you want to invest in green, then take your money and put it into oil, gas, coal (lovely fossil fuels) and you will see green dollars start rolling in, inflation will disappear, job growth will be staggering, your wages for the blue collar folks will double, Fuel costs will tumble greatly, the economy will soar. We can start shipping out oil!!! Stop supporting a tyrant in Afghanistan with America’s money and finish the wall on our southern border and stop the invasion. Send thousands of our military to the border and sort through the criminals and keep the good people cause we can use the workers (teach them English) ELIMINATE Wokism, CRT training, Gender bullSS, and ESG should be banned.
Of course to do all this we must first get rid of Biden and his cabinet, eliminate the Deep State traitors, and put Soros and others like in in prison and sieze there assets to fight Fentanyl drug use. We can wait for another election and watch the demoncrats cheat, lie, buy off election we need to overthrow them NOW, NOW, NOW

BEA
BEA
1 year ago

Our government is way too BIG. We have thousands of people in every department. What do they do? Great benefits, pension, great salaries, etc. etc. The US government is bringing the taxpayer to its knee!

Vic
Vic
1 year ago

If I gave an estimate for $3900 to let’s say reroof a house and later said it will be approximately $12,000, do you think I would still be in business?

JamesP.
JamesP.
1 year ago

I wish people would realize that the government is NOT your friend. They actually speak with forked tongues. Things they give you always have strings attached. A losing deal.

God Bless America
God Bless America
1 year ago

they the communist democrat party will destroy the country because we the people let them.. china joe and his administration are guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. everything that is happening is totally against our constitution and laws. We Let them do it .. Biden should be impeached his administration destroyed and all should be tried for Treason. Compromised Biden, Pelosi, Clintons, Ovomit..who started all of this with his fundamental Transformation of the United States.. WE the People let these Communists destroy the only (no longer) Free country in the World.

The Tree of Liberty Must be Watered from Time to Time
with the Blood of Tyrants

Thomas Jefferson

Lois DB
Lois DB
1 year ago

We are a Republic – We The People – not a Democracy where majority and money rules.
The Green Energy – CRT – Pronouns are proof we are completely no longer use commonsense.
This push for all Electric will not only be impossible, but has anyone addressed the disposal of
all the appliances, autos, trucks and now tanks. – Land fills and burning (more pollution?).
Oh and we killing the birds an whales. Just a thought?

David Millikan
David Millikan
1 year ago

Excellent article.
The same 10 products I bought when President Trump was in cost $42 LESS than what I paid today. So, NO, INFLATION is NOT coming down as the FAKE NEWS lies about.

Denise
Denise
1 year ago

I hope folks will become more sensitive to the deliberate disintegration of our Constitutional Republic. I believe it ramped up in earnest with the Clinton regime….the regime that literally got away with presiding over the slaughter of American men, women and children at Waco, Texas…while the “media” cheered it on. Our once “noble” FBI began it’s decline in earnest, military, law enforcement, ATF attacked, threatened, used military force with tanks and helicopters to ram and shoot tracers into the building; CS gas was used on these people, banned by the Geneva Convention as “too cruel for warfare!”…but what was Clinton impeached for? Messing with an intern in the Oval office! He per our law, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, should have been tried for high treason and at the least sentenced to life, along with his jack booted Janet Reno, in a maximum security prison for the murders of almost 86 men, women and children. Interestingly the Texas Rangers were told to “stand down”…of course! They’re true Americans.
I fear for this upcoming “election” and wouldn’t be surprised to see another steal.
George Bush Sr. during his presidential acceptance speech some years back said; “We must usher in the New World Order.” I watched that speech on TV…at the time I wasn’t sure what it meant but felt a touch of uneasiness.

We are in deep trouble in this nation; sadly far too many won’t go beyond the nightly news and local papers. Be aware, question what you hear and dig deeper.
A quote from Ben Franklin: When a nation forgets it’s God, tyrants soon forge it’s chains.”

Steven Tapper
Steven Tapper
1 year ago

There’s an old saying that goes, “Even crime wouldn’t pay if the government ran it” is still true today. Career politicians, especially left leaning politicians see bigger government as the answer to all problems, made up or real. Until Trump became President how many of those “problems” were actually solved? Politicians are in the business of growing government and don’t mind doing it on the backs of hard working taxpayers. Everything about Green Technology is based on a false pretense. Exactly who benefits from these mindless policies? Not the US for sure. If the government was really interested in sustainable “green energy” they would be advocating for all power plants to be nuclear powered. The fact that they don’t tells us all we need to know about their agenda to ruin our economy and make America a third world country.

Prairiefires
Prairiefires
1 year ago

The greens will destroy the global economy if not stopped now.

George
George
1 year ago

It makes sense to be good stewards of our environment. However, this radical everything green right this instant is not feasible or obtainable. Even if the West could get to a zero carbon footprint it will make NO difference as China and India are full-speed ahead on all forms of pollution if it grows their economies.The green movement has become a zealous cult!

Moses
Moses
1 year ago

The way government thinks. We put all this money in the economy that will take 3 to 5 years to use up. But wait, we caused inflation. OK, raise the interest rate, which has no effect on government spending, but cripples the auto industry, the housing industry, causes lay offs and slow downs. Still no effect on inflation, still high, and of course I forgot to mention we choked the American oil & gas industry. Let’s give $100 billion to Ukraine, wait are they a democracy, no, but lets give it to them any way. Maybe if we start WW III, even though we have no oil, no production, no money, it could be a good idea. Way to go Joe.

J. D. Vance speaking with attendees at the 2021 Southwest Regional Conference hosted by Turning Point USA at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona.
A Labour Party pin badge over the UK flag, on 2nd May 2017.
The United Nations flag waving in the wind. United Nations flag.
Home Title Lock AMAC Sweepstakes

Stay informed! Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter.

"*" indicates required fields

54
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x

Subscribe to AMAC Daily News and Games