It really did not take long. It used to be said that the shortest time known to man was the interval between the light changing to green in Manhattan and the taxis blowing their horns. This has been replaced by the time between some problem appearing for the Obama re-election effort and the columns and articles appearing to explain why there really is no problem. Now it is happening with rising gasoline prices. Brad Plummer in the Washington Post has a column explaining that high gasoline prices will not affect the presidential election. He has all sorts of statistics, but it is all nonsense. Let me put it this way: 1)high prices for oil and gasoline have the ability to cut economic growth or even to cause a recession. 2)High energy prices translate into higher prices for all sorts of every day necessities. 3)High oil and gasoline prices also can lead to a rise in unemployment. Of course, these results are items that frequently follow after higher gasoline prices; they do not happen every time. Even the Obama apologists will not be able to tell us all with a straight face that slowing economic growth, high inflation and increasing unemployment will not affect the election. Indeed, any one of those items will have a major effect, and it will not be a good one for Obama.
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