1) Nobel Economists Who Got Bidenflation Wrong Now Predict Trump Will Ignite Inflation
We have our hand on the Bible swearing we are not making this story up:
A gang of 16 Nobel prize-winning economists signed a letter yesterday endorsing Biden for president because: "There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite inflation with his fiscally irresponsible budgets."
But then our colleague, Scott Bessent, noticed something strange and ironic about the signatories: 13 of these economists signed a highly-publicized open letter three years ago assuring Americans that Biden's "Build Back Better" spending spree would "ease longer-term inflationary pressures."
Then—whoops!—18 months later inflation soared to 9.1% under Biden – the worst U.S. inflation in almost 40 years! This would be the medical equivalent of amputating the wrong leg.
Here's the overlapping list of these economists who were spectacularly wrong in 2021, but whom we are supposed to believe are right this time around.
The chef's kiss is that the first listed signer on both letters, George Akerlof, is Janet Yellen's husband.
We argued then that Joe Stiglitz (and the rest of these scoundrels) should do the standup thing, send back their Nobels and PhDs, and admit that when it comes to the real world, they have no idea what they are talking about.
Instead, they are now predicting that if Trump is elected, he will reignite inflation even though the average inflation rate during Trump's first term was 2.5% versus closer to 5.5% under Biden. Are these scholars so buttonholed in their ivory towers that they are unaware of this basic fact?
Here is the comparison of inflation under Trump and Biden.
2) Nearly Half of Electric Vehicles Owners in the U.S. and Britain Are Likely to Switch Back to Gas Cars
So much for the great transition away from fossil fuels.
Why are EV car buyers dissatisfied? Lack of charging stations (despite an inept $7 billion federal program to build them) and high costs of maintaining them.
If these numbers hold up, there is no way the Biden mandates over the next decade of nearly 100% EV sales will happen.
President Trump was right to say these unpopular mandates will cause “a bloodbath” of consumer opposition.
We’ve said it many times: Joe Biden’s presidency and his endless list of green energy subsidies and mandates are the worst things that ever happened to the EV industry.
3) If You're Flying to Europe, Expect to Pay a Climate Change Tax
The cost of Lufthansa Group's "net zero" ambitions became a lot clearer yesterday: expect a surcharge to cover the cost of buying emissions credits up to 72 euros per flight. That’s close to a $75 green tax for flying.
The goal of the radical greens is to make flying so expensive that only the rich elites can afford to board a plane. Remember our famous survey of elites finding more than half believe that discretionary air travel should be banned. These taxes are the first step to making that happen.
4) Steve Forbes Issues Warning of Backdoor U.S. Carbon Tax
CTUP co-founder Steve Forbes sounds the alarms on – bipartisan, sadly – efforts afoot in Congress to lay the predicate for the U.S. matching European carbon taxes:
As written, the PROVE IT Act directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to collect data on the emissions intensity for the domestic and global production of a range of products, including steel, cement, glass, aluminum, and more. Data from several designated countries, including the U.S., would be gathered, analyzed and stored by federal bureaucrats…
A handful of GOP policymakers mistakenly claim the PROVE IT Act is a necessary data tool to protect large U.S. industries from foreign competitors. And despite promises to amend the bill to prevent its serving as a platform for new taxes, you can already hear the special interests pleading for tariffs based on selective data considerations. Hiding behind government-spun data and such words as "tariffs" won't eliminate what these policymakers would be abetting: a costly, new national energy tax. And they shouldn't think for a second that liberals won't later work around any protective amendments to prevent the law from being used to enact a new tax.
5) Kenya’s Police Shoot and Kill “Treasonous” Anti-Tax Protesters
In recent days, Kenyan President William Ruto (Biden's best buddy in Africa), labeled the thousands of anti-tax demonstrators who stormed Nairobi's City Hall “treasonous,” and the police opened fire and killed a number of the protesters.
The massive citizen rallies are in opposition to the massive corruption and a massive proposed tax increase – including a 20% VAT tax on bread and other food, new taxes on vehicles, and a 6% tax on digital services.
"We are tired of being slaves to the political class. We cannot continue funding their lifestyles while we have no jobs," NPR quoted 20-year-old Brian Were, one of the protestors.
One of the sinister forces in this tax increase crusade was the morons who run the International Monetary Fund, who had advised the Kenyan government to close their budget deficit with a massive tax increase.
We think this incident could be the canary in the coal mine globally. Statism is spreading like a virus around the world and citizens are heroically fighting back. Now government tyrants are turning the police and military on their own people. Scary, and don’t be surprised if it happens here in a Biden second term.
