I know it's pretty easy/popular to blame Biden for inflation, but here is a direct line to the last administration on part of the very complicated answer to what has caused the dramatic increases in everything, including food.

How Tariffs and the Trade War Hurt U.S. Agriculture

With inflation continuing to skyrocket, especially for food, which reached 10.4 percent in June, it is worth examining how the ongoing U.S. trade war with China and U.S. tariff policy overall has impacted U.S. agriculture and food prices. The economic literature shows that the U.S. import tariffs and subsequent retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other countries on U.S. agricultural exports have hurt the U.S. agricultural industry and could impact future production, further raising food prices.

Tariffs generally raise consumer prices, and while that’s true of export tariffs too, the mechanism operates a bit differently. Limitations on exports, whether through tariffs or explicit export bans, often produce an excess in goods. If firms are unable to sell their products to the world, they must sell more of them domestically. The surplus lowers prices in the short run. But when firms invest in producing food, a highly volatile commodity, they invest based on what return they think they will be likely to earn in the future. If their access to a foreign market is limited due to another country’s tariff policies, their profits will fall and they will invest less in future production, which would lead to higher prices in the long run.

In response to the U.S. imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration on Chinese imports, China responded with several waves of tariffs on U.S. exports to China, with tariff rates ranging from 2.5 percent to 25 percent. As China represents the U.S.’s largest agricultural export market, a large percentage of agricultural goods, including soybean and pork exports, faced tariffs. Other countries also retaliated against the U.S. for imposing Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. Across all retaliatory tariffs, $30 billion in agricultural products were targeted, or about 22 percent of all retaliated goods.

...

 sunybuny wrote: 
  shhh "big oil" has been investing literally billions in renewables for years (one recent example on bloomberg)

 sunybuny wrote:
I offer this up as a "sort-of" summary of the ethical/moral positions available for your friend.   

A friend of mine was present during much of this debate at Swarthmore College in PA.  A lot of the smartest folks anywhere argued for months over it....and here's a summary.

FWIW - the returns on their portfolio (currently the 10th largest per student in the US) have enabled them to spend extravagantly on a new dining hall facility that includes the following sustainability benefits in its design.... 

• All-electric energy using renewable sources
• Solar panels on the roof
• Meadow area and food gardens
• Improved compost collection
• Induction cooking
• Increase in locally sourced food
• Stormwater management and recapture
• A geoexchange energy transfer plant in the basement that will serve the entire campus and enable the College to transition away from the use of fossil fuels

Asking for a friend.... how hypocritical is it to drive electric car, recycle like crazy, have solar power, wash on cold setting and have lots of Big Oil stocks in retirement portfolio?

Tyson Foods beats revenue estimates as chicken prices soar

Big oil’s quarterly profits hit £50bn as UK braces for even higher energy bills

 miamizsun wrote:
Translated by my Putin American English decoder ring.

 Red_Dragon wrote:

i blame the west, especially nato and nazis

 miamizsun wrote:

nah, gotta be Sleepy Joe's fault

hi alex i'll take "why people don't understand that oil is a globally traded commodity and how market disruptions, like covid, war, etc. could roil production/prices worldwide?" for $1000

 Red_Dragon wrote:
About the same amount as the estimated annual fossil fuel subsidies ($20b) provided by the gov to the industry.

 rgio wrote:

but politics are simple.

 rgio wrote:

Also, the price of oil drives the price of damned near everything.

 Red_Dragon wrote:

Curse you, capitalism! 

 Red_Dragon wrote:
So the free market, zero-regulation Republicans want to blame Joe for the price of gas?   

Sure, those numbers are global, but inflation and recession are a lot more complicated than just pointing fingers. 

ExxonMobil posts second-quarter profits of $17.85bn – four times last year’s figure – with Chevron making $11.62bn

gotta be Joe's fault...

The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine

(long read)

 westslope wrote:

 black321 wrote:
Understandable.  Presumably the bounce from a steep recession will be a good one.

Think of the political implications of this from the perspective of voters who have little understanding of economics or economic policy, and who consistently exaggerate the influence of the President, and government in general.

Example: Sleepy Joe managed to attain a higher rate of economic growth than Marxist-Keynesian Donald J. Trump aka the GREATEST American president ever!