To the editor: The Federal Reserve can’t cease inflation (“The Fed is doing its part to fight inflation. Now Congress needs to act,” Sept. 17). Inflation occurs when there may be inadequate manufacturing of wanted merchandise to satisfy demand. A significant component within the present wave of inflation is inadequate oil accessible to satisfy world demand and regionally, in addition to quite a few useless tariffs elevating costs on a variety of merchandise, from aluminum to tomatoes. The Fed will neither produce a barrel of oil nor cut back a single pointless tariff.
Contributing author Veronique de Rugy cites the efforts of then-Fed Chair Paul Volcker within the early Nineteen Eighties. He didn’t cease the inflation pushed by the oil shocks of the Nineteen Seventies. Inflation eased when the Saudis tried to convey order to the Group of the Petroleum Exporting International locations by increasing production to drive costs all the way down to about $10 per barrel. On the identical time, North Sea oil manufacturing was ramping up dramatically.
Once more, the Fed didn’t produce a single barrel of oil. What the Fed completed was setting the stage for the greater than $100-billion savings and loan bailout attributable to the very excessive rates of interest that threatened the solvency of the trade.
De Rugy asks for “reform” of Social Safety and Medicare. For Medicare, the Kaiser Family Foundation notes the Medicare Fee Advisory Council discovered that the George W. Bush taxpayer rip-off referred to as Medicare Benefit value 20% greater than plain Medicare to the tune of $84 billion in 2025. Eradicate Medicare Benefit and save billions yearly. For Social Safety, eliminating the cap on wages, as was performed for Medicare in 1993 within the Omnibus Price range Reconciliation Act, would offer important income to alleviate present shortfalls.
Norman Rodewald, Moorpark
