A progressive organizer has come up with a novel way to avoid having to go through Congress in order to distribute automatic stimulus funds. However, in order to get things started, his plan would still require the approval of Congress.
Reports in The Sun state that the director of the Economic Security Project, Adam Ruben, is proposing “automatic stabilizers” that would watch unemployment levels and automatically provide stimulus checks and unemployment benefits, among other things.
Once enacted, those automatic stabilizers would be exempt from congressional approval. The specifics of the payments, however, would need to be agreed upon by Congress before I could put them in place. And, given the current political atmosphere, it’s possible that won’t be the case.
Did the Federal Reserve’s Stimulus Payments Contribute to the Inflation Surge?
A disagreement exists between conservative and progressive economists as to whether the government’s stimulus payments were responsible for the current increase in inflation…
Many believe it was the result of a number of things coming together. From supply chain stresses to pent-up demand, from pandemic lockdowns to stimulation checks, there is something for everyone.
Steven Saunders is a director and portfolio advisor at Round Table Wealth Management in New York City. He has over 20 years of experience. He believes that a combination of global supply chain disruptions and government stimulus payments was responsible for the spike in inflation.
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As Saunders explained to Forbes, “At the same time that the global supply chain was experiencing wide-scale disruptions, stimulus payments resulted in a high number of individuals having surplus disposable money.”
Individuals moved their spending away from services such as dining out or travel and toward purchasing tangible products such as televisions or supplies for home remodeling during that time period because most of the economy was shut down.
Because there were fewer things available, individuals were forced to pay a higher price for those products. This resulted in an increase in the rate of inflation.
Meanwhile, Ancora Chief Investment Officer John P. Micklitsch told Forbes that increased government expenditure was a contributing factor to the inflationary jump in recent months. However, it was the only one among numerous.
‘It’s mostly due to a perfect storm of supply chain disruption caused by Covid, government spending to fill the economic hole created by the disruption, and a synchronized global rebound driven by vaccine rollout and economies re-opening,’ Micklitsch explained.
While the pandemic exposed a decade of underinvestment in the global commodity supply chain, Micklitsch noted that it also revealed a decade of underinvestment in the global commodity supply chain.
Because of the widespread use of “just-in-time” inventory, suppliers were particularly vulnerable to this type of supply disruption. And that’s something they’ll have to solve if they want to avoid a repeat of the situation in the future.
The White House has not yet proposed a new round of negotiations.
The Biden administration appears to be holding off on announcing another tranche of stimulus funds for the time being. Of course, anything could happen at any time. However, according to reports, Biden’s top focus this year is getting his Build Back Better legislation passed via the Senate.
All of this is dependent on Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who is a centrist (D-WV). In his remarks, Manchin cited projections from the impartial Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the plan would cost upwards of $3 trillion if lawmakers chose to extend benefits such as the child tax credit for an additional year, as is widely predicted. He expressed concern over the state of the nation’s finances.
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On the proposal as it is currently written, Manchin has stated that he will vote “no.” And following a public spat between Manchin and the White House late last year, the senator will need to be persuaded to change his mind before he will be willing to examine the legislation.