In 1999, the film "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" gave us "Blame Canada," perhaps the only Oscar-nominated song to drop the f-bomb. "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Brad Stone attended the Academy Awards ceremony eccentrically dressed and possibly in altered states of consciousness.
They lost out to a "Tarzan" song by Phil Collins and proceeded to ridicule the singer in two episodes of season 4. They "fully expected to lose, just not to Phil Collins," as Parker put it.
Lately, President Joe Biden sings his own tune, "Blame Russia."
Blame it for the highest inflation in 40 years and the highest oil prices since 2014, which have sent stocks down 12% since the start of the year (now down 7%).
So, blame Russia for the stock slide, too.
Now we stand by while Russia escalates its insane, ultraviolent attack on Ukraine.
We are late with an incomplete patchwork of sanctions; NATO refuses to mount a no-fly zone despite the pleas of the Ukrainian president.
All the while, Team Biden administration hampers Ukraine from defending itself.
A few days ago, March 6, NBC News posted a story saying the White House and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the U.S. was in talks with Poland to let it send Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine --- whose pilots are trained to fly them.
Three days later, CNN posted a story, "Why the U.S. Rejected Poland's Plan to Send Fighter Jets to Ukraine." The U.S. Department of Defense opposes it "at this time."
So, just let Ukraine burn, but be sure to blame Russia.
Here’s what's really to blame for five dollar per gallon gas and seven percent inflation:
- Massive government spending
- Heavy-handed interventions by the Federal Reserve
- Biden policies that took aim at strangling U.S. production of oil and natural gas
The old ideas about the link between inflation and the amount of money in circulation, that it arises from too much money chasing after too few goods, have fallen out of favor, The Wall Street Journal reports. Time to reconsider.
The Federal Reserve balance sheet had less than $1 trillion in assets in late 2007 versus almost $9 trillion in early 2022. That's a nine-fold increase when the U.S. economy grew only 40% in the same span, and Fed assets have doubled since 2014.
The brain has a hard time comprehending how large nine trillion is, so try this: nine trillion seconds of time adds up to… 285,000 years.
Where did the Fed get all that money to buy bonds from Wall Street? It made it up.
The Fed did this without any law or presidential approval, on the whim of seven unelected governors. They have more power to disrupt and destroy the system than the politicians in Congress, the president, the people, as well as gigantic companies.
Meanwhile, in the COVID-19 craziness, the government handed out trillions of dollars in direct payments to businesses and individuals, even people who were still working. This includes the $2.59 trillion CARES Act, $902 billion in tax relief, and up to $4 trillion in new lending.
This may be why gas prices were able to climb to $5 per gallon and higher in some markets, despite lower demand due to coronavirus, working from home, and less traffic.
When demand is slack, prices should fall.
That is, unless the outlook for gas production suddenly is reduced.
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. became the number one producer in the world, we stood up to OPEC, and gas prices hit record lows.
Embarrassingly, under President Biden, who shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, we have curbed new drilling, begged OPEC to drill more, and increased our imports of Russian oil by 24% — to a record high in his first year in office. We imported 670,000 barrels per day of crude and petroleum products from Russia in 2021.
Now the Fed is raising interest rates.
For 20 years inflation was the boogeyman that never showed up, and now it's here.
We've done this to ourselves; beginning Nov. 3, 2020.
Dennis Kneale, @denniskneale on Twitter, is a writer and media strategist in New York. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal, the managing editor of Forbes, and an anchor at CNBC and Fox Business. Read Dennis Kneale's reports — More Here.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.