John Cassidy of The New Yorker writes that even though the interrelated issues with inflation and supply-chains are not President Joe Biden’s fault, Republicans will blame him anyway...just because. With some economists predicting that the inflation rate could rise even further over the next few months, the Republican onslaught on Biden will only intensify, but it can’t stand unchallenged. Many of the factors contributing to the inflation surge are beyond the immediate control of any President. Sticker shock at the gas pump is primarily a result of a decision by the opec oil cartel to restrict production at a time of rising demand. Higher prices for new and used vehicles, which have been one of the biggest drivers of the rise in the C.P.I., stem largely from a shortage of new cars caused by a lack of computer chips imported from Asia. Higher rental costs, which contributed to the most recent jump, can be traced to spiking real-estate prices and rock-bottom interest rates. The so-called supply-chain problem, which lies at the heart of the broader inflation surge, is a global phenomenon rooted in a faster rebound from the worldwide coronavirus shutdowns than many people had expected. “As the global recovery gains traction, demand for raw materials, intermediate inputs and logistical services has outstripped available supply leading to rising and volatile prices, and delivery delays,” the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (B.I.S.)—the central bank of central banks—notes in a new report. Shipping costs have soared, cargo vessels have been forced to queue for days to gain access to ports, and the situation has been made worse by “precautionary hoarding at different stages of the supply chain,” the report goes on. This global logjam is leading to higher inflation in many countries. In Britain, in August, consumer prices recorded the biggest one-month jump on record. In Germany, the inflation rate topped four per cent, the highest figure since the nineteen-nineties. In the nineteen-country eurozone, the inflation rate in October was 4.1 per cent, according to a preliminary estimate. In Russia, inflation is running at more than eight per cent, while, in Brazil, it’s nearly eleven per cent. These figures bear further inspection. If the Biden Administration’s spending policies have been a major factor in driving prices higher—as Republicans claim—you would expect the inflation rate to have jumped a lot further in the United States than in Europe, say. That hasn’t happened. Between January, 2020, and October, 2021, the U.S. inflation rate increased by approximately 4.7 percentage points, and the eurozone’s inflation rate increased by 3.7 points. The U.S. jump is bigger, but the figures are roughly in the same ballpark. Read more