Unfit Politicians Blame Energy Companies & Russia for Inflation

When our elected officials flagrantly and shamelessly lie to us about the nuts and bolts of our daily lives, we have to wonder what their well-paid teams of advisors truly think about us. They’re the ones who write these false talking points and feed the teleprompter. Their economic consultants perfectly understand, yet their political clients and corrupt journalists collectively choose to be a cabal of orchestrated liars. Even the Biden Administration lied through their teeth, with highly insulting, propagandistic language:

Let’s state what Biden’s team of advisors already know, as they choose to lie: taxation is a large component of gas prices, ranging from 10-20% on average. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil‘s profit margin in Q1 2022 was only 6.35%. What reasonable and moral person thinks that a gas company should take less profit than the government takes in taxes? Private profit is critical for growth, innovation, stable ownership, and international competitiveness.

They complain that companies have used their revenues for stock buybacks rather than growth and innovation. This maligning of corporate management is dangerous to American civics. Stock buybacks are crucial instruments. They stabilize stock prices, they return money to the shareholders and allow key shareholders to exit their stake, they increase earnings per share, they can protect from hostile takeovers, bolster support during market corrections, and fix undervaluations. Many companies have chosen stock buybacks as a matter of intelligent operations after being eviscerated by pandemic market and government circumstances.

As with most lies, there is a bit of truth in the accusations of the unfit politicians. While stock buybacks can be exploited by C-suite executives for their own personal gains, it is quite obvious that buybacks have been largely popular after the housing bust of 2008 and the COVID economic implosion, because corporations are constantly adapting to massive market corrections driven by the consequences of dirigiste government impositions upon the economy. But typical Americans will not even bother to understand the nuances of stock buybacks, so when they hear the political liars whip up the “corporate greed” socialist nonsense, they’ll just let the lies feed their emotions and construct their scapegoats.

So why are so many unfit politicians, once again, lying through their teeth about energy companies? In 2008, a CNN poll showed that 62% of viewers blamed the oil companies for high gas prices, and only 32% blamed supply and demand. How many decades of education will it take for Americans to stop responding obediently to these insulting political deceptions?

COVID Economic Erosion

Pretending as though the total money a company made (gross revenue) is the significant indicator of “greed” shows that the current Democrat messaging has no shame in exploiting the average American’s economic inexperience. Gross revenues are necessarily large when you’re selling a lot of inventory, and when your cost to make the product is higher. Is Exxon Mobil really exploiting Americans? Net profit margin is the significant test for that claim. Here is their net profit margin history:

Exxon Mobil should be taking even more profit to compensate for all they lost in 2020 due to the government’s COVID economic wrecking-ball policies. Yet their profit margin in Q1 2022 is only 6.35%. Contrary to the socialist “corporate greed” deception, businesses cannot choose their profit margin arbitrarily, because they have to compete with other businesses in their markets. Only oligopolies, nonprofits, and government agencies can exploit consumers in that way, because they’re insulated from the consequences of malfeasance. The government demands currency expansion via credit and their spending policies by the $trillions, and then when people face the consequences of inflation, the elected officials who approved the inflationary spending simply blame private citizens, foreign nations, and businesses.

So let’s put the focus where it belongs: government policy that created inflation. Considering the primary function of the government is national security, have they fulfilled their primary duty to hold China accountable and liable for the costs of COVID? The Chinese Communist Party willingly allowed the virus to spread from October 2019 to February 2020, and created the virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The UN WHO only just admitted that the Chinese lab origin theory is viable, while wise Americans have asserted this since the 2020 leaks regarding Fauci, Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance, and Batwoman Shi Zhengli.

To Trump’s credit, he was building a plan to hold the UN and China accountable for their responsibility in spreading COVID, even when the UN WHO sadistically named the virus “COVID” instead of “Wuhan Flu” like every other disease has been named (Lyme, West Nile, Dengue, etc.). I was grateful every time that President Trump used the term “Chinese Virus” because it was his bold and clever way of calling out the bald-faced liars of China, the UN, and the Democrat quislings who dared to name the virus “COVID” as they prostrated themselves before the PR czars of the Chinese Communist Party. The racially paranoid Democrats of America even tried to censor, ban, shame, and intimidate anyone who used the apt terms “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan Flu.” As it was with Vietnam, the Democrats have a history of acting as quislings to service Chinese Communist influence operations against US interests. The more things change…

China should have the entire globe punishing them and making them pay for the pandemic. Instead, our people scramble to pick up the pieces, and blame each other for things they cannot control in the aftermath. One of those things is economic instability for creating $4.6 trillion in credit via COVID inflationary spending policies — which was disbursed to 43 different agencies, and ultimately landed downstream to create inflation for our cost of living. Trump participated in that inflationary spending as well, in 2020 as he signed a $2.35 trillion COVID taxation package. And to be sure, we must understand this spending as taxation. It’s not as blunt as the sales tax on your receipts, but every time you go to pay for something, and you’re competing with helicopter money, you’re paying a very high tax. And the government will make your children pay for this a second time, when they service the debt through direct taxation.

As followers of Alvarism will testify: we have explained the consequences of high debt levels and oversized government since 2007. We have debunked all of the major economic deceptions, predicting and preempting the housing bust, the Fukushima disaster, the Greek failure of democratic socialism, the failure of ObamaCare (Affordable Care Act), the Brexit vote, the peaks and valleys of cryptocurrency, and the sustained erosion of the American economy.

Many other analysts who contested the official economic narrative, chose histrionic and chicken-little methods, preaching “economic apocalypse” and civil war. Alvarism asserted that the truth is less dramatic, but even less desirable than a short, vigorous upheaval. Japan sustained these levels of debt and damaged an entire generation, dubbed “The Lost Generation.” The same thing is happening to America now, just as we predicted.

COVID is not fully responsible for America’s foolish debt-addicted emulation of Lost Generation Japan. All of the citizens who voted for unmitigated government largesse and spending are responsible, along with the lying politicians that they supported. But COVID is the black swan event that pushed us over the tipping point. And China should be the one paying for that, not American consumers and businesses.

The Real Contributors to High Gas Prices

State and local taxes for gas and diesel averaged 31.46¢ in the past decade, and federal gas tax added 21.4¢ on top of that for a total of 52.86¢. In 2019, you were coerced into handing 20.3% of your gas expenditures to government taxation, because gas prices averaged $2.60/gal. As the price of gas has exceeded $5/gallon, you’ve had to find an additional $1,500/year to pay for your gasoline.

So how much could you save if the government and energy companies stopped their profits and taxation? Today, you could be paying $4.47/gal if the government ended the gas tax, which would save you about 10% on your gas expenditures, or $328/year. You would only save another $208/year if American oil companies took no profit, and allowed their businesses to erode in market standing and innovation. That would bring the cost of gas down to $4.15 And you would still be paying $2,752 for gas this year.

Lastly, while the unfit politicians try to misdirect your hostility towards the oil companies for 6.35% of your cost, as they simultaneously grab 10% for the government, what about the real bulk of the cost at 83.65%?

In the last decade, 56% of the cost of gas has been for crude oil — what it costs to survey, safely extract, and ship to refiners. Speaking of which, crude oil would destroy your vehicle if you used it. Refinement is a business that processes crude oil into forms that can be used. That accounted for 14% of the cost of your gasoline in the last decade. Finally, the gas has to find its way to your gas station through distribution, sales, and marketing, which adds another 14% to the cost. Imagine that! We‘ve accounted for the 84% that the politicians hide from you as they blame the oil companies.

Perhaps the unfit politicians would like to tell all of the government employees under their umbrellas to stop taking a paycheck, since that’s what they seem to think is possible for gas companies? They decreased the supply of gasoline to the United States by 15% to sanction Russia for their invasion of Ukraine. While this certainly has had an effect on supply and demand, post-pandemic supply/demand imbalance and supply chain backlogs have contributed even more to the price of your gas. And the American inflationary government spending largesse has contributed the most of all, which is why you‘re paying even more for food, rent, houses, and everything else.

In short, the government is taking 10% from your inflated gas cost through taxation, oil companies are taking 6.35%, Russian belligerence is taking 15%+, Chinese lab-made pandemics and American dirigiste debt-fueled government spending is taking 25.2%. Considering the American government did not so much as lift a finger to hold China accountable for the destruction, death, and costs of COVID, the biggest contributor to your gas inflation is in fact the American government @35.2%.

Now, will the liars of social media companies impose their “fact checkers” and “warning labels” on the unfit politicians and journalists who blame Russia and oil companies for gas inflation? Will they censor and ban people who spread the falsehoods? I won’t hold my breath. Social media “fact checking” has become an inverse litmus test for truth, and a testament to their hatred of empowering average people with accurate information.

I think this entire cabal of economic liars — from organized political teams to ideologically-biased corporate executive management — disrespect us and see us like petulant and naive children, easy to distract and manipulate, as they redirect our frustrations towards energy companies and Russian scapegoats. They don’t want us to hold them accountable for their dirigiste policies that created inflation, high gas prices, high rent, high grocery bills, and high housing prices. But we will hold them accountable in the voting booths.