Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Make sure criticisms are appropriately directed

Dear Editor

No one is going to suggest the economy is where we want it to be right now. But it's important to keep in mind that economy is not a domestic issue - it's a global issue impacted by global events. The American government can have some positive influence over the direction of the global economy, but only if it chooses to.

What are the two largest factors affecting the global economy right now?

1. Resurgence of COVID across the world, but particularly in China, where they've instituted region-wide lockdowns in major world ports. Regardless of what we think of China and the slave and child labor there, the closing of such a large segment of global trade is going to have a huge effect that the American government can have no control over.
2. Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has led to the majority of free nations of the world rejecting Russian energy (I think rightly so) and thus leading to a massive increase in in global energy prices and demand, at a time when the past mismanagement of the ecology is forcefully coming to roost in our current global climate. This is not something that the XL pipeline will fix, or any of another handful of harmful initiatives that the ignorant prefer to believe is a panacea for our ills.

We live in a global economy, and it is essential that we all behave accordingly. America doesn't get to make the rules because 'Murica. We DO get to set policy and behave as a good example to the rest of the world for it to follow.

Obviously, no one can say if China would be having its COVID problems today if America had shown more leadership to the world as soon as the realization was clear how serious the problem is. Just as obviously, America would have alleviated some of its current economic problems if it had not lost over 1 million of its people, and spent trillions of its dollars, dealing with COVID when all the evidence told us we should be taking preventative action rather than ignoring the whole thing.

We, the American people, made certain decisions about our leadership several years ago, and the consequences are now upon us. Our current government is left with the impossible task of trying to recover from the massive mistakes of an inept administration and an inept Congress. Our current government is not exactly immune from being inept itself, but it has been a significant improvement over what it was.

At least our current government takes reality seriously, and it can hardly be blamed for having to deal with the fallout of the idiocy of the immediate past.

Anthony Bopp