Green Inflation

The Far Middle episode 121 arrives as Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer, approaches. With fall on the horizon, Nick has basketball on his mind, which leads to a special dedication to basketball pioneer Arnold “Red” Auerbach. Nick calls Auerbach, “the most accomplished pro basketball coach and executive in the history of the game, both statistically as well as with respect to impact.”

After reflecting on Red’s historic career, Nick pivots to red’s complementary color: green. Specifically, he delves into the concept of green inflation, which is the collective combination of green energy policies, mandates, and subsidies driving general inflation.

Nick addresses the impact of waning worker and labor participation on inflation, but underscores that it’s climate change policies that is the single biggest contributor to inflation. “The true aims of climate policies are to manufacture and impose scarcity,” says Nick. “Energy scarcity then transmits to overall economic scarcity, and supply scarcity of everything, because everything needs energy as the fundamental input or feedstock.”

Nick highlights several data points illustrating green inflation. These include President Biden’s cancelation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, America’s first proposed cobalt mine being put on hold by its developer, and Ford’s EV business unit’s losses.  

“The only way for Ford to make money on EVs is for the price of EVs to go up and to force consumers to buy them, which means the supply of gasoline powered vehicles must go down,” explains Nick. “You see, restrict supply of the efficient, enforce the choice of the inefficient, and raise its price. Green inflation 101.”

Next, Nick calls out the hidden costs of wind and solar infrastructure on the power grid and how those new transmission infrastructure costs will be paid for. Moving on from power lines, Nick discusses traffic lines and traffic congestion pricing. The origins of traffic congestion pricing is the “hallmark of the Left,” says Nick. “Create a problem, purposely, upon the private sector and then use that created problem to justify more power and control over the private sector. It's simple but effective time and again.”

In closing, Nick notes how summer weather these days is described by many as a sign of Armageddon. On the topic of summer heatwaves, Nick draws a connection to the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “Rear Window.” While Coach Auerbach was preparing for the Celtics’ 1954-55 season, “Rear Window” hit theaters on September 1, 1954. “It should be considered as one of the greatest films ever,” says Nick.