- snitzoid
Bezos right about Biden being FOS about gas prices? Joe doesn't like comments?
Bezos is so off base. I haven't noticed a problem with gas prices have you? Sure our president is upset about the price at the pump, that why he gutted the oil/gas industry so they wouldn't produce more energy.
Actually, I just ordered a giant windmill which I strapped to my new EV Chevy Suburban. Who needs oil!
BTW: I've decided that Bezos is a bad guy, so in protest I'm not going to order a single thing this year from Amazon. Just kidding...I am going to.
Jeff Bezos Criticizes Biden’s Call for Gas Stations to Cut Prices
Amazon founder says president’s push is ‘misdirection’; White House rejects criticism
U.S. gas prices have hit a record high and are showing no signs of going down. That’s largely because oil companies are no longer incentivized to drill more as oil prices rise.
By Rina Torchinsky, WSJ
Updated July 3, 2022 7:29 pm ET
Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos criticized President Biden for pressing gas-station companies to immediately lower their prices at the pump, accusing the president of “misdirection” or “a deep misunderstanding” of market forces that have driven up costs.
Mr. Biden wrote in a tweet on Saturday: “My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.”
“Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now,” he said.
Responding to the president later in the day on Twitter, Mr. Bezos wrote: “Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.”
“Oil prices have dropped by about $15 [a barrel] over the past month, but prices at the pump have barely come down. That’s not ‘basic market dynamics.’ It’s a market that is failing the American consumer,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter.
“We obviously take great exception at the idea that this is somehow misdirection,” John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said on Fox News. “The president is working very, very hard across many fronts to try to bring that price down,” Mr. Kirby said.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. have reached record levels this year, and drivers are feeling the economic burden. The national average price for a gallon of regular gas was $4.81 as of Sunday, according to AAA, about $1.70 higher than it was a year ago.
Pump prices vary significantly by location and rise and fall based on a range of factors. Tens of thousands of largely independent gas stations set the final pump prices that customers see in the U.S., though producers, refiners and others in a vast network of oil-and-gas companies have an influence on those final prices.
Rising gasoline prices have become a significant challenge for the Biden administration. The president proposed last month that Congress suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months, in hopes of alleviating the pain for U.S. drivers. But few lawmakers support the so-called gas tax holiday, which economists said would do little to ease prices anyway.
The president also has lobbied the Group of Seven countries to impose a cap on Russian oil exports and has tapped the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Inflation hit 8.6% in May, marking its fastest pace since December 1981, the Labor Department reported last month.
Mr. Bezos has previously criticized Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy, saying the president was wrong to attempt to tie the corporate tax structure to rising inflation. “Mushing them together is just misdirection,” Mr. Bezos tweeted.
Other business leaders and chief executives have expressed concern over the economy in recent months. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon warned of an economic “hurricane” brewing.
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk suggested in May that the economy was headed toward recession and said last month that the electric-vehicle maker planned to cut about 10% of its salaried jobs.
Asked at the time by reporters about Mr. Musk’s dire economic assessment, the president pointed to plans by Ford Motor Co. and Intel Corp. to boost their hiring. “Lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” Mr. Biden said.
Write to Rina Torchinsky at rina.torchinsky@wsj.com