The Two Wizards Named Jimmy & Joe

WSJ nails the common thread between the failed Carter & Biden presidencies: “The abiding truth about politics in a democracy is that prosperity & peace invariably carry the day.” Neither Jimmy nor Joe knew what hit ‘em.

In short, the paper’s editors explained: “Their presidencies were both undone by inflation & US weakness abroad.” In fact, they noted, “The two Democrats presided over the largest bouts of US inflation in a half century. Carter’s inflation was worse, with annual price increase reaching 13.3% in 1979.” Maybe it wasn’t entirely his fault, they opined. But “Mr. Zero-based budgeting” dilly-dallied with a dollar policy already weakened by Nixon, then, refused to tighten the money supply enough as the dollar plunged; it meant that oil & other prices inevitably shot up to astounding levels. As for Biden, ponder his March 2021 “spending blowout” for something called “climate remediation” that fell “on top of the Covid spending of 2020.” As the flood of money chased too few goods, you guessed it, inflation soared to 9.1% in June 2022 … & the pollution got worse. The editors couldn’t help but notice: “This similar history is a reminder that inflation is the Achilles’ heel of center-left governments. The progressive desire to tax & spend, combined with easy money to finance the spending, is the default policy of nearly every Democratic administration.

Of course, the “other great Carter-Biden similarity is a world of adversaries on the march amid the failure of US deterrence.” Consider Carter’s hang-wringing year-long Iranian Hostage Crisis & Biden’s disastrous Afghan withdrawal slash Open Border Immigration fiascoes. We’ll give that game to Biden on points, 2-1.

Davd Soul