Because of his failure in the economy and the “Ukraine trap”, Joe Biden risks becoming the worst president in US history
Experts predict the highest inflation for this year, almost up to 10%
US President Joe Biden has not been doing well lately. The economy is bursting at the seams, world oil and gas prices have skyrocketed, the insidious Russians are getting on his nerves, and then almost every week there are all kinds of accidents, crashes and other strange episodes. Against this background, many began to claim that “Old Man Joe” was the worst head of state in the country’s history.
The Ukrainian trap
“Talks about the current president being the worst in US history have been made about almost every leader of the country, whether it was Roosevelt, Kennedy or Reagan. But the real results of the management of each person can be understood only 50 years after his departure from office”, says associate professor Alexei Fenenko from the Faculty of World Politics of the Moscow State University “M. V. Lomonosov”.
However, this expert believes that Biden has many problems. For example, relations with the DPRK. He vowed to give a firm response to Kim Jong Un, and criticized Trump for his softness. But in fact, “Old Joe” never did anything to Pyongyang either. From Washington, only statements of “readiness for any developments” are heard as North Korea prepares for its new series of nuclear weapons tests.
Things are no better with Saudi Arabia, Washington’s closest ally in the Persian Gulf, which has long been outside the White House’s criticism. However, everything changed with the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in whose murder in 2018 the Americans believe that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was personally involved. Biden threatened during his election campaign that he would make this country a “pariah” for the death of a journalist.
As can be seen, it was not possible to “cast out the demons” from the Islamic kingdom. In addition, amid the surge in energy prices, Saudi Arabia has strengthened its role as one of the key players in the oil market. And if Biden wants to “punish” Russia, then he’ll have to negotiate with the Saudis to get prices down. Therefore, in these very days, the American leader went “on pilgrimage” to Riyadh, forgetting about human rights.
“But Biden’s main failure is the events in Ukraine. The fact is that Kyiv, controlled by the Americans, was the main guarantor of the non-restoration of the new powerful union in the post-Soviet space. Now, in the event of the destruction of Ukraine’s statehood or the confiscation of an important part of its territory, Washington loses the most important foothold from which it can control a significant part of Eurasia. Considering that Russian forces are on the offensive, the United States risks receiving the biggest foreign policy defeat since the end of the Cold War,” believes Alexey Fenenko.
According to Fenenko, Russia’s victory in Ukraine will cause serious damage to American hegemony, because it will become clear that “friendship” with the United States does not guarantee the security of anyone, and the weapons of the Pentagon are not some kind of panacea.
The illegal guests
Another failure of Biden’s policy is the situation with migrants from Latin American countries, who literally stormed the US in the first year of the current president’s term. The owner of the White House himself promised to abandon the “criminal” policies of Donald Trump, and hinted at a general amnesty for illegal immigrants, an end to the persecution of migrants and the eradication of the vicious practice of separating children from their parents in temporary detention centers.
In fact, the situation has hardly improved. Most recently, in the Texas city of San Antonio, the bodies of 46 migrants were found in an abandoned truck, who had died of heat stroke due to the heat. The poor people were literally boiled alive and were very exhausted because there was no water or ventilation in the car.
The Biden administration has been reluctant to acknowledge the problem, blaming the influx of migrants on smugglers who smuggle people across the border and even the long-departed Trump. And nothing has changed. Migration flows are not abating and the authorities must make more efforts to oppose illegal immigrants.
You can’t fool the economy
But Biden’s biggest nightmare is the economy. The president promised everyone a breakthrough. And indeed it happened, but not up, but down. In the first quarter, US GDP fell by 1.6%, with the second quarter also expected to decline. And brokers called the last six months the worst in 50 years, as the key index of stock market activity according to the S&P 500 it lost almost 20%.
“The US now has a ‘perfect storm’ of falling GDP, rising inflation, the stock market crisis and all this after the coronavirus epidemic. As a result, a W-shaped recession pattern was formed, where after the first decline (post-coronavirus) it was followed by an increase and then a recession again. And that’s how the Great Depression began. Attempts to bring the economy to sustainable growth are failing so far,” says Vladimir Vasiliev, doctor of economics and chief research associate at ISKRAN.
Prices in the country are rising for almost all products, and experts predict the highest inflation for this year, almost up to 10%. But mostly Americans are shocked by their gas station visits, and many of them have never seen gas prices so high. Here’s just one telling number: 62% of US citizens surveyed believe rising costs are preventing them from living their “American Dream.”
“Worst of all, the US federal government, for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt, has lost the leverage to bring the economy out of crisis. There are two of them: fiscal policy (increasing spending and reducing taxes, which increase the public debt) and monetary policy (lowering interest rates). Now the situation is unprecedented – against the background of the falling economy, the government has completely turned off the levers of fiscal policy in order to reduce the deficit,” Vasiliev says.
So hard times await Joe Biden, and the situation in Ukraine is superimposed on the economic crisis, and in the fall there are midterm elections for Congress, where the Democrats risk losing many seats. Of course, it’s debatable whether the current president bears any personal blame for this, or whether he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But in any case, it will be the owner of the White House who will be held accountable for the failures, having been labeled “the worst president in history” for life.
(Translation for “Labor” – Pavel Pavlov)
–
