Inflation Reduction Act

[Jack Jones]

And while the plan is scaled back from Biden's initial Build Back Better package, the latest bill -- named the Inflation Reduction Act -- would represent the largest investment in energy and climate programs in US history, extend expiring health care subsidies for three years and give Medicare the power for the first time to negotiate prescription drug prices. The legislation would impose new taxes to pay for it.

This is not an Inflation Reduction Act. You don't reduce inflation by putting more money into the economy. Even if the new taxes do pay for the legislation (they won't), they won't be collected until later. So at best, this is an inflate-now-and-then-deflate-the-same-amount-later Act.

[flyingpylon]

This is not an Inflation Reduction Act.

It is in clown world.

[joypog]

But Larry Summers gave it his stamp of approval!

[vnatale]

But Larry Summers gave it his stamp of approval!

We shall see if the Republicans quote him endlessly on this as they did prior when he said the opposite for a different Act.

What is called when you quote an otherwise enemy / opponent by saying, "Even ..... agrees with us..."?

If he was an authority whose opinion was valued to be quoted by what logic does he no longer have authority to have an opinion which is valued so as to be quoted?

[Jack Jones]

This is not an Inflation Reduction Act.

It is in clown world.

Queue the circus music.

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The stuff on the top is just estimates of money that will be saved. But you can count on the money under Total Investments being spent.

Corporate tax will just be passed onto consumers. That seems inflationary to me.

This is about spending money on the political issues du'jour. However, w/ inflation raging, that is unpalatable to the masses, so they needed to dress it up a bit.

[glennds]

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[doodle]

Not to try to push this conversation too far off on a tangent, but is there some recognition that failure to transition off fossil fuels could have massive inflationary impacts in the not too distant future? Haven't read the contents of inflation reduction act so can't comment on it's effectiveness but what role does leadership or legislative action play in moving humanity into a new era of energy production?. Was recently watching a couple videos on the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. Apparently this thing is melting much faster than originally predicted by the models. Should warming and sea level rise scenarios come to pass much faster than originally anticipated wouldn't they have massive inflationary impacts on food production, relocation of millions of individuals, skyrocketing insurance and endless other issues arising from the abrupt changes the world would be forced to cope with?

[Jack Jones]

Haven't read the contents of inflation reduction act so can't comment on it's effectiveness but what role does leadership or legislative action play in moving humanity into a new era of energy production?

Their role should be to get out of the way. Energy is already one of the most regulated industries. The incentives are all messed up, so you're left w/ public money being spent on things that the market doesn't want, e.g. unreliable forms of energy.

Energy requires serious multi-decade investments. Who wants to put their money on the line to build a nuclear plant when the regulatory environment is so unstable?

Great cartoon, Glenn.

[doodle]

Haven't read the contents of inflation reduction act so can't comment on it's effectiveness but what role does leadership or legislative action play in moving humanity into a new era of energy production?

Their role should be to get out of the way. Energy is already one of the most regulated industries. The incentives are all messed up, so you're left w/ public money being spent on things that the market doesn't want, e.g. unreliable forms of energy.

Energy requires serious multi-decade investments. Who wants to put their money on the line to build a nuclear plant when the regulatory environment is so unstable?

Great cartoon, Glenn.

So the market would transition smoothly to less polluting forms of energy on a timeline that coincided with the latest scientific research regarding climate change? I'm not saying what we have is working as far as government regulation, I'm just doubting that the alternative idea of some of the most powerful and wealthy corporations willingly transitioning away from a business model and infrastructure that has been and continues to be very successful. Seems like it would be more beneficial tfor them to squash potential upstarts and competitors in order to preserve the status quo.

[Jack Jones]

So the market would transition smoothly to less polluting forms of energy on a timeline that coincided with the latest scientific research regarding climate change? I'm not saying what we have is working as far as government regulation, I'm just doubting that the alternative idea of some of the most powerful and wealthy corporations willingly transitioning away from a business model and infrastructure that has been and continues to be very successful. Seems like it would be more beneficial tfor them to squash potential upstarts and competitors in order to preserve the status quo.

I can't say, but I think as long as people are struggling to get by energy should be as cheap as possible. The alternative is rich people removing the ladder that got them there.

I wasn't expecting it, but it has provisions for nuclear energy:

Nuclear reactor operators such as Southern Co., Constellation Energy Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and Energy Harbor Corp. also could see a boon from a $30 billion production tax credit for nuclear power providers.