Stimulus to the Rescue!

As gas prices remain high and politicians worry about their impact on upcoming elections, it has become the idea du jour to throw money at the problem.?Indeed, California – the greenest of all states – wants to help pay for gas!?Gavin Newsom, who no doubt is eyeing a 2024 presidential run, wants to give everyone who qualifies $400 debit cards to help pay for gas.?

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/03/23/governor-newsom-proposes-11-billion-relief-package-for-californians-facing-higher-gas-prices/

Let me summarize these actions:?Bad policies contribute to high gas prices.?To make it look like they are doing something productive, politicians want to continue bad policies and get people to not focus on the policies by handing them someone else’s money.?(Note I wrote, “Bad policies contribute to high gas prices.”?They are not the only cause but our inability to have common sense energy policies is having a major impact on prices.)

Monetary stimulus has become a drug in this country.?Are we going to continue to ignore that excess monetary stimulus is part of the inflation problem??Guess what, President Biden, Milton Friedman’s ideas live on.?Artificially adding more money to the economic system will only add fuel to the inflation fire.?

Instead of monetary stimulus, can someone please start talking about sensible energy policies??We can protect the environment while we transition from fossil fuels to something greener.?Instead, we will hand out and watch energy costs continue to spiral out of control.??