The Fed’s War on Supply: Fair Trade's Real Culprit: By Craig Bergman

 

The Fed’s War on Supply: Fair Trade's Real Culprit

The Federal Reserve’s relentless rate hikes are not just misguided—they’re a deliberate assault on America’s economic recovery, strangling supply when it’s already on life support. Prices remain sky-high, and inflation lingers not because of rampant consumer demand but because production and delivery systems are broken. The Fed, cloaked in its statist agenda, refuses to help, instead wielding high interest rates like a sledgehammer to crush Trump's economy. This isn’t a misdiagnosis; it’s intentional, and the goal is globalist enslavement.

Consider the fuel crisis. Before COVID, America was the world’s top oil exporter, pumping 13 million barrels a day and importing nothing. Small drillers thrived, keeping energy cheap. Then came the Biden era: lockdowns, regulatory chokeholds, and a wave of bankruptcies—over 100 small oil firms folded by 2021 alone. Production sank to 11 million barrels daily, and diesel prices soared from $2.50 to over $5 a gallon. Trucking, which hauls 70% of U.S. goods, saw costs double—some routes now cost 200% more than in 2019. That’s not “inflation” in the abstract; it’s a supply shock baked into every grocery bill and Amazon delivery.

The COVID shutdowns lit the fuse, but the aftermath was nuclear winter. Supply chains snapped—ports clogged, factories idled—and small businesses bore the brunt. Nearly 40% of them closed by mid-2021, while big-box giants, backed by lobbying muscle, stayed open. A local manufacturer or retailer can’t sell, can’t pay the bank, and dies, often dragging its owner’s credit into the grave.

The result? Fewer players to rebuild supply, less competition to temper prices. Today, labor’s still missing—3 million fewer workers than pre-COVID, with participation stuck at 62.7% of the economy. Production lags, wages spike, and costs climb higher.

Trade deficits pile on the pressure. We’re bleeding $600 billion annually to China alone, importing more than we make. Domestic factories stay shuttered, and reliance on foreign goods—from Canadian lumber to Mexican auto parts—keeps supply thin and prices fat.

Add global energy chaos: OPEC+ slashed output by 2 million barrels a day in 2022, and Russia’s war spiked oil further. Even corporate greed plays a role—firms like meatpackers and retailers jacked up prices 30% beyond cost increases, exploiting the mess. None of this is “too much demand”; it’s too little of everything else.

Enter the Fed, wielding its blunt tool: interest rates. Designed to cool spending, hikes make sense when consumers are flush—think 2021’s stimulus checks. But today? Retail sales limp, wages stagnate, and families cut back.

The problem isn’t demand overheating; it’s supply suffocating. Raising rates to 5%—where they hover in 2025—doesn’t fix trucker shortages or drill rigs. It just makes borrowing to rebuild impossible. A small business owner can’t finance new equipment at 7% interest; a manufacturer can’t expand. Supply stays choked, and prices stay high.

Worse, the Fed knows this. Its governors, steeped in demand-side dogma, reject supply-side logic as “voodoo economic” or “trickle-down.” They’d rather tank the economy than admit the Bush-era RINOs and leftist Keynesians were wrong.

And now, with Trump poised to reclaim growth, via his trade policies and strong rumors of ending the income tax, they double down. Lower rates could spark production—new wells, new factories, cheaper transport. Instead, they stonewall, keeping rates elevated and fuel costs punishing. The media laps it up, framing every rate hike as “fighting inflation” while lying about the supply-side carnage.

This isn’t incompetence; it’s a calculated move. The Fed’s war on supply isn’t about trying to save the patient—it’s murdering it, and they’re banking on the headlines to blame Trump.

Drop rates, balance trade, unleash growth, and watch prices fall. Until then, this intentional sabotage keeps inflation burning and America is poised to become a murder-suicide scene.