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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) ripped into Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Thursday after she tried to blame soaring inflation on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hawley asked Granholm whether she thought the rising price of gasoline was “acceptable,” to which she said “it is not, and you can thank the activity of Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, and pulling–“ To which Hawley said “With all due respect, Madame Secretary, that’s utter nonsense,” adding “The average gas price in my state was $2.07. Eight months later, eight months later, long before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, that price was up over 30%,...

The House voted Thursday to pass Democrats’ bill aimed at combating “price gouging” on gasoline. The bill passed 217-207, with no Republicans voting for it and four Democrats voting against it: Reps. Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), Lizzie Fletcher (Texas), Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) and Jared Golden (Maine).

◾U.S. gasoline and diesel prices are at record highs and show no sign of falling or of denting demand. ◾Refining capacity has shrunk dramatically since 2020 due to the covid pandemic, driving fears of a supply crisis. ◾It is looking increasingly likely that the only cure for these high prices would be a recession, a cure that could be as bad as the disease. U.S. gasoline and diesel prices are soaring to record highs nearly every day these days, as crude oil prices hold above $110 a barrel, the Russian invasion of Ukraine upends global crude and refined product trade...

Some gas stations across the country are already bracing for the Next Big Thing involving surging fuel prices, namely the price per gallon potentially exceeding $10. For other stations, however, there might be no product left to sell at the pumps. Throughout eastern Washington, according to a Post Millennial report, gas stations are running out of fuel. In the Tri-Cities region of Kennewick, Pasco, and West Richland, customers are reportedly pulling up to pumps ... only to find no gas available for purchase. In fact, a local Facebook group has already identified 10 state stations that are currently out of...

Gas prices at the pump hit $4 a gallon in every state for the first time Monday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). This is mainly due to languishing refinery capacity across the US, dwindling fuel stockpiles, and robust demand for gas ahead of the summer driving season. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Georgia — the last three holdouts — saw prices for regular gas surpass the $4 a gallon mark last night. The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.523, another record high. The increase comes as the cost of crude oil now tops $114 a barrel. In...

Let’s get ready to stumble! Seriously, with soaring energy prices and soaring EVERYTHING prices (except for real wage growth), it is difficult to see how the US will avoid a recession. Yes, everything is seemingly rising in price, yet REAL average hourly earnings growth keeps falling. Rising price + declining real earnings growth = eventual recession. So, let’s get ready to stumble … into recession.

Oil prices have topped $113 per barrel on optimism that China’s lockdowns are coming to an end and demand will not take a prolonged hit. In early afternoon markets Monday, news that Shanghai was seeing a strong recovery from COVID cases, with plans in place to ease lockdown restrictions beginning this week, outweighed a litany of bearish news for oil. Brent was at $113.97 per barrel on 3:20 pm EST, while WTI was trading at $113.77. WTI neared $115…Authorities in Shanghai on Monday said restrictions would finally ease, in stages, after nearly six weeks of lockdowns that have shaken the...

US retail gasoline prices soared to another record on Monday as global refineries struggled with adding new capacity ahead of the driving season. Before diving into Goldman Sachs’ new commodity note explaining how global refining will be tight for the foreseeable future, last week, Saudi Energy Minister said, “the bottleneck is now to do with refining … many refineries in the world, especially in Europe and the US, have closed.” Goldman’s commodity analyst Neil Mehta outlines a rash of refinery retirements, reduced Russian energy exports, recovering jet fuel demand, and tight global inventories for products, particularly diesel, have supported higher...

US retail gasoline prices soared to another record on Monday as global refineries struggled with adding new capacity ahead of the driving season. Before diving into Goldman Sachs' new commodity note explaining how global refining will be tight for the foreseeable future, last week, Saudi Energy Minister said, "the bottleneck is now to do with refining ... many refineries in the world, especially in Europe and the US, have closed." Goldman's commodity analyst Neil Mehta outlines a rash of refinery retirements, reduced Russian energy exports, recovering jet fuel demand, and tight global inventories for products, particularly diesel, have supported higher...

I feel like we are in an economic demolition derby under Joe Biden and The Federal Reserve (with freshly reappointed Fed Jerome Powell at the helm). Under Biden, regular gasoline prices are UP 85%. The Biden Administration recently cancelled 0il-and-gas drilling leases in Gulf of Mexico and Alaska Coast, helping to drive up gasoline prices even higher. In the two-pronged attack out of Washington DC, The Federal Reserve is tightening their monetary policy in an effort to combat 40-year highs in inflation (caused by excessive Federal spending and Biden’s ill-advised energy policies), causing residential mortgage rates to soar 93.4% under...

The 1970s came back so fast, I didn’t even have time to buy some leisure suits. Faced with massive inflation and an energy crisis, the obvious solution would be to incentivize more extraction and refining by lowering regulatory hurdles, a solution that eventually helped end the cyclical energy crisis 40 years ago.Instead, Democrats have decided to act by canceling lease sales, erecting more regulatory hurdles, and attacking … “price gouging.” Bloomberg Energy reporter Javier Blas reports that Nancy Pelosi will float a bill in the House that would give Joe Biden the authority to impose price controls on gasoline:US House...

April’s inflation numbers are out and, at first glance, inflation seems to be cooling from 8.5% YoY in March to 8.3% YoY. But the headline inflation numbers do not accurately reflect the pain and suffering of American households. Food is up 9.4% YoY and gasoline is up 43.6% YoY. The strange way the BLS measure “shelter” shows that housing only grew at 5.1% YoY. That’s odd since home price growth is almost 20% YoY and rent growth is near 20%. Runaway home prices and rents are especially painful given that inflation is destroying the purchasing power of the dollar for...

Joe Biden likes to sell himself as “Middle Class” Joe. But Middle Class Joe declared war on the middle class with executive orders on fossil fuel drilling and killing the Keystone pipeline. Hence, his press conference on reducing inflation left off one thing: he could rescind the aforementioned executive orders. But he didn’t. So its Band-Aids on Band-Aids. Since Biden was elected President, WTI Crude Oil futures are up 102%. Regular gasoline is up 83% and the lifeline of the shipping industry, diesel, is up 111%. Of course, inflation measures don’t measure the harm to the middle class at 8.5%...

President Biden announced his latest supposed silver bullet to deal with inflated gas prices that reached their all-time high last month — more ethanol than usually allowed in American gas — during a speech on Tuesday evening in Iowa. As usual, Biden's announcement was more about avoiding blame that explaining what his plan would do...because it won't do much. Biden's decision to use executive authority to have the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waive normal rules to allow grain-based ethanol mixtures of up to 15 percent in American gas supplies is, according to the White House, more action aimed at lowering...

Here’s some simple Medusa math for you: negative growth + payroll gains = negative productivity. Negative productivity + high labor costs = very high unit labor costs. That’s not a pretty picture for the economy or for companies, and the Q1 figures were even worse than expected — productivity fell by 7.5%, pushing unit labor costs up by 11.6%. Nasty. In fact, labor productivity fell to the lowest level since 1947 and President Harry Truman. Of course, Biden’s green energy policies have led to crushing inflation. Biden’s policies are a Medusa-touch on the economy. The new logo for the Biden...

Washington CNN — President Joe Biden on Tuesday will announce new steps his administration is taking to address rising gasoline prices across the country, including emergency measures to expand biofuel sales... [Snip] The President is slated to announce that the Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver permitting year-round sales of E15 gasoline, which contains a 15% ethanol blend, on a trip to Menlo, Iowa, where he’ll visit POET Bioprocessing, a biofuels plant that specializes in the creation of bioethanol. [Snip] The sale of E15 gasoline is usually prohibited from June to mid-September because of air quality concerns. Under...

President Biden on Tuesday is set to announce that the Environmental Protection Agency will allow E15 gasoline—gasoline that uses a 15% ethanol blend—to be sold in the United States this summer in an effort to expand Americans’ access to affordable fuel supply amid the surge in gas prices across the nation. The EPA is set to issue a national, emergency waiver. Without the action, the White House said E15 cannot be used in most of the country from June 1 to September 15. The EPA is expected to take final action to issue the emergency waiver closer to June 1.

Nearly a third of Americans, just over 30%, have had to cut grocery spending to afford rising gas prices, according to a Quinnipiac University survey. Americans report continuously feeling frustrated with high gas prices, as over one in four Americans blame the Biden Administration’s economic policies as being most responsible. The poll found similar numbers of independent voters agreeing Biden’s policies are most to blame. These numbers stand as a contrast from Washington Democrats’ argument, who blame “Putin’s price hike.” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy asks, “What is more responsible when topping off the tank hurts? A raging war...

Its official! I submitted my resignation from George Mason University effective June 1, 2022. I will miss teaching the students, past and present. But back to the US Treasury yield curve. It remains in reversion (meaning shorter-term Treasuries have higher yields than longer-term Treasuries, usually a sign of impending recession. The Fed has actually started quantitative tightening (QT) and the growth rate of Treasury note and bond purchases has slowed to a crawl. Meanwhile, Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate rose slightly to 4.91%. Meanwhile, President Joe “The Big Guy” Biden has ordered carmakers to increase their average fuel economy to about...

No, gasoline prices won’t suddenly tumble like crazy because President Joe Biden Thursday announced the biggest release of oil reserves in history. But his action could nudge prices somewhat lower. The impact of releasing 1 million barrels of oil a day for six months should be “marginal at best,” said Sanjay Varshney, professor of finance at California State University, Sacramento. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said he could see the Biden action cutting prices as much as 10 to 25 cents a gallon, but called that a shaky prediction.