Monday, September 18, 2023

Janet Yellen Expects Oil Prices To Stabilize

 If Janet Yellen is acting worried — you should be too

 

NYPost.com

Not go down. Stabilize. The former Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank and current Treasury Secretary gave an interview expressing her belief that the US economy is in good shape, despite a $33 trillion budget deficit and oil currently trading at over $90 bbl. Retail gasoline prices in California are now $5.625/gal. In Mississippi a gallon of gas averages $3.21.  Of course, taxes of various kinds have an effect on gas prices. California, a national leader in so many things, also leads in state gas excise tax, 77.9 cents/gallon. Federal, state and local taxes add on another 28 cents/gallon. Small price to pay to sit in an immense, slowly moving parking lot at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Yellen, like all federal economists, has no prescription for solving either immediate or long-term economic issues. She'll wait and see what happens, like we all will, and then do something or other, raise an interest rate (fix the price of borrowing money), engage in "quantitative easing" or some other financial voodoo. It seems likely that the high price of motor fuel might be a part of the administration's unbelievable effort to replace internal combustion transport with an electric alternative. The EV people may be cheering the high price of fuel, which is a favorable aspect for their mania.  

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