greg, it s clear the fed chair does not want to understate the economic environment. last year he mistakenly, he admitted himself, calling inflation transitory. that having been said, we all understand this is a very unusual economy right now. i guess the question is does he have the right tools at his disposal to deal with it? well, he made the point that not all this inflation is a result of excess demand, and excess demand is the only thing the fed can deal with by raising interest rates. as we ve all heard many times there have been all sorts of supply chain bottlenecks, container ships that are tied up offshore, shortage of semi conductors and so on. but powell confronted that argument head on. he said just because some things are causing inflation that aren t caused by demand does not absolve us, the fed, of getting inflation down. look at the labor market, for example. we are used to saying 3.5% unemployment, that s great. half a million jobs created per month, that s great.
later today president biden will sign a bipartisan bill designed to drive down the cost of shipping goods overseas. the white house hopes that the bill eases supply chain bottlenecks at sea, it bars ocean carriers from refusing to take american exports back to asia if their ships have space. overseas shirps s asia if their ships have space. overseas shs shirps posted prof of $150 billion in 2021. and three environmental law groups are suing the biden administration trying to block more than 3500 permit applications from energy companies to drill for oil and gas on public land. the group claims that it violates several federal laws. climate advocates are determined to hold president biden to his campaign promise to ban all the drills that he has failed to deliver on. nd and coming up,
of living. you are making x amount of dollars but you can t afford your electric bill and the gas bill and supply chain crisis is making groceries go up. it s just expensive and lawmakers reacting when he said yesterday we are changing people s lives. you had congressman mike rogers from alabama. he says americans lives have changed for the worse. senator josh hawley saying you are changing their lives all right. $5 plus for gas. no baby formula. historic inflation and crime wave. steve: if you are keeping track, the latest boogie man for the president is america s refiners because he said their profit margins are too large. as you go back for all of the things that are on his plate right now, he, of course, blames trump. he blames putin, he blames coronavirus. he is now blaming supply chain bottlenecks, corporate greed, meat producers, oil companies, shipping conglomerates and now right on their refiners as there as well because doggone it they re working as hard as they