[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Don't think anyone is saying Biden can fix inflation immediately. I am saying that Biden can help reduce the impact of inflation if he is willing to pay the political price. Similar to my discussion with Brian, I do not believe that Biden could/can not lessen the impacts (and reduce the odds) on inflation.

On inflation and recession being a given, the best minds then (Powell, Yellen) said transitory inflation and I honestly don't remember reading much about recession back in first 3Q of 2021.

Assuming you agree that stimulus money had helped fuel inflation (or in general, there is too much money around) why do student loan forgiveness now (vs pause). An estimate is $370B. And for that matter, is it time to remove the pause.

Also the Trump tariffs on China (and think Canada also). Should he get rid of those?

Backlog in western ports to offload goods. Can Biden step in and help the union and management do better (e.g. work 24/7)?

Can Biden swallow his pride and re-engage SA (and Venezuela) and give them what they want (whatever that is) to increase heavy crude production?

There's probably other ideas out there that Biden can do if he is willing to pay the price.

Good to see that Biden is taking a more practical approach now. Should have done it earlier. This was a trigger he could have pulled earlier to help inflation if he really wanted to.

Biden gives Chevron permit to restart Venezuelan oil sales - POLITICO

The Treasury Department granted permission Saturday for oil giant Chevron to produce and export oil from Venezuela following the South American country’s decision to restart talks with opposition groups.

The move could add supply to the global oil market, which may ease fuel prices and speed the declines in U.S. gasoline prices that have been a political burden for President Joe Biden since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

I guess below also could be true but do we really believe Maduro is going to give in? He's already survived the worst of it, Venezuela is getting better compared to 2-3 years ago. Our ME frenemy has embarrassed Biden so he's reaching out to Maduro. I really do hope we can buildup our relationship with Venezuela, we still need to import the 5% heavy crude from somewhere for the next 10-15 years; and Venezuela is a lot closer than ME.

But a senior administration official said the easing of sanctions was not driven by the oil market pressures and was instead a response the Venezuelan regime’s decision this week to participate in the negotiations with opposition groups. Those talks, which were originally launched in Mexico City in September 2021, are expected to focus on humanitarian programs and setting future elections.