There is no doubt that inflation has gotten much worse here in the States in the last year and a half. And despite the impression of many people, we’ve been suffering inflation for several years – and I mean severe inflation and not just the creep of prices experienced over the last two or three decades. But even the most blind of politicians, economists, and voters realizes that the rate of climbing prices is now much greater. No matter how bureaucrats play games with the numbers.

I am hearing and reading how Republicans are using Uncle Joe as a whipping boy. They blame him for this recent (and continuing) surge of rising prices. Well, him or whomever is calling his shots right now.

I think that they are wrong. Yes, some of the responsibility for fuel and other commodity prices clearly can be laid at the feet of the Democrats and their actions since the 2020 elections. But…

BOTH political parties have created the major problem, not just going back nearly a century. Actions back in the 1930s, in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the last two decades all have worked together to again revive the monster of inflation. Actions primarily by governments and politicians. Actions repeated time after time. Always with “good intentions” but either ignoring basic economic facts or pretending they are not facts. And frankly, with motives that were far from innocent.

Of course, we need to ask just what inflation is. The typical definition is that it is a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing power of money. More easily understood as more money chasing the same or fewer goods and services. There can be many reasons, and despite some claims to the contrary, it can happen even with REAL money – God’s money: gold and silver. (It happened in Spain back in the 1500s, and in California in the 1850s.) But fiat money DOES make inflation both easier to create and harder to control.

So we can thank both FDR for his devaluing the dollar (from $20 to $35/ounce) AND Richard Nixon for making the dollar a completely fiat currency. But we can also blame Eisenhower and Johnson for their military and domestic spending and the massive borrowing by the FedGov. More and more money – fiat money – chasing the same or fewer goods and services. And creating a vicious cycle ramping it up year after year. The same things that happened in post-Imperial Germany. In Argentina time and time again. In Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But it isn’t just dead (or living) presidents that we can blame: it is CONGRESS – and most STATE legislatures that bear the greater responsibility.

Then and now. The major cause of inflation in these Fifty States today is the incredible spending of Federal, State, and local governments – military and welfare. Especially the various stimulus packages done as part of the Pandemic Panic in 2020 and 2021 – and still continuing today. Causing the federal debt to pass $30 TRILLION this year. Added to state and local government (and private) debt, this incredible sum can only be “paid” by inflating the money to the point that a “Benjamin” (a $100 bill) has the purchasing power that a dollar bill did 50 years ago.

And whom do we blame for that? Well, we can certainly include The Donald in that list, and the Congress – both Democrat AND Republican – for passing those packages, and sending out that money. Money which continues to flow even today. (The Navajo Nation Council recently paid out thousands of dollars to each enrolled member using FedGov money for COVID “relief.” They were far from the only government – tribal or local – to go on spending sprees.)

This year – right now – the inflationary effect of printing more and more fiat – fake – money is made worse by the economic shutdown of two years and the current near-collapse of the supply chain worldwide. There are literally fewer goods and services to buy, even while trillions of bogus dollars are being spread around. Again, it is not just the Biden regime that we can blame for that.

And that doesn’t even touch the damage to the economy from government regulation and the increasing use of social media to whale on and cancel companies and people. A trend promoted and used by government.

Yes, there are others to find guilty of creating this mess. Not that Uncle Joe is without blame: his policies on drilling and production, on mining and timber harvest, and on dozens of other essential industries have all worked to create a shortage of needed goods and services.

Ultimately, the only solution I can see is to end fiat money and return to even a bimetal (gold/silver) standard, no matter what problems that has. And to end the power of the government to counterfeit money, to regulate matters to the n-th degree, and to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow. Nothing less will do.