Ukraine war takes its toll on Biden
La economía sigue siendo la principal preocupación de los estadounidenses ya que se encuentran en recesión desde la segunda mitad del año y la crisis económica y energética golpea con fuerza sus bolsillos y la tasa de inflación se mantiene en el 8,2%, la cifra más alta registrada en los últimos 40 años. De hecho, el miércoles la Reserva Federal (Fed) subió por cuarta vez este año los tipos de interés en 0,75 puntos. De hecho, la medida provocó un terremoto en el mercado de valores, con el índice S&P 500 cerrando con una caída del 2,50 % y el Nasdaq con una caída del 3,36 %. Según el informe de Bloomberg, cuando el jefe de la Reserva Federal, Jerome Powell, anunció la subida de tipos de interés, las fortunas de multimillonarios estadounidenses como Elon Musk y Steve Ballmer, Jeff Bezos y Bill Gates, entre otros, se desplomaron.
According to information from Bloomberg, in the hour and a half since Powell began speaking, 500 US billionaires lost $59 billion. Estimates indicate that billionaire Elon Musk lost $9 billion, Jeff Bezos lost $4.8 billion, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Steve Ballmer and Sergey Brin lost around $2 billion.
Bloomberg said the Federal Reserve's monetary policies of raising interest rates are the most aggressive in decades, decisions that have caused the wealth of US tech billionaires to plummet by more than $300 billion this year.
The reality is that Joe Biden's administration failed in its strategy of escalating tensions against Russia, which ended with Russia's bloody and ruthless invasion of Ukraine and the development of a war that has its government in trouble because the cost of living is the number one concern of Americans.
Of course, the effects of sanctions against Russia have boomeranged on the Biden Administration and the governments of its European allies, as fuel costs, energy tariffs and the basic basket of goods are hitting the pockets of Americans, Europeans and the rest of the world.
In March this year, his administration banned imports of oil, gas and coal from Russia to the US. However, The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that, via Italy, the Russian company Lukoil, which owns the ISAB refinery in Sicily, refines Russian crude oil with an Italian label and exports the gasoline to the US East Coast.
A cynicism that affects the credibility of the White House and the effects may cause the Democrats to lose the mid-term elections. A virtual election loss has led President Biden to accuse oil companies of "profiting from the war in Ukraine". He called their huge profits an "outrageous" bonanza and noted that "it's not because they're doing anything new or innovative, it's war profiteering" and that "they have not lived up to their commitment to invest in America and support the American people".
Accordingly, he called on the oil companies to reduce gasoline prices and in a threatening tone said: "If they don't, they will pay a higher tax on their excess profits and face other restrictions". "My team will work with Congress to look at these options that are available to us and others. It's time for these companies to stop war profiteering, live up to their responsibilities to this country, give the American people a break," he said.
Those statements are a synthesis of the concerns he has in the days leading up to next Tuesday's elections. It is clear that the Biden administration and its European allies have shot themselves in the foot by supporting the Ukraine war and sanctions against Russia, and are drinking the poison from their own potions.
Si bien su administración ha liberado 180 millones de barriles de petróleo de reservas estratégicas en un intento por frenar el alza de los precios de la gasolina, no lo ha logrado. De modo que las petroleras y multinacionales que controlan los mercados de materias primas se han convertido en las principales pesadillas de la administración Biden, pues son las primeras en evadir las sanciones. En conclusión: la guerra en Ucrania está pasando factura a Biden.
@j15mosquera