By Bill Wilson — In February, the Obama Administration accounted for rising gasoline and oil prices with market forces, saying alternatively that it was because the economy was recovering and included increased demand overseas, particularly China. Now, Obama is claiming that so-called ‘speculators’ are manipulating oil prices.
Which is it? Rising demand? Or price manipulation? These are contradictory claims, and undercut the Administration’s credibility on this issue.
Obama is just trying to deflect attention away from his own ‘stimulus’ policies that have weakened the dollar. These are the real cause for price pressures in commodities, including food, oil, gasoline and precious metals like gold. When you have high prices in a single asset, supply and demand issues can be cited. But when you have a broad range of commodities all with escalating prices that is an inflationary indicator.
Are rising food prices a part of Obama’s global conspiracy to manipulate prices, too? What about rising gold? How many are involved in this sordid plot to raise prices across the board? This is absurd.
We don’t need Obama’s conspiracy theories to explain price shocks. Government hacks like Obama will blame anyone but themselves for the problem which they themselves created. This is inflation brought on by too much money printing and government borrowing.
Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. You can follow him on Twitter at @BillWilsonALG.
