The founder and head of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, in 2019. Pablo Martinez Monsivais (AP)
It is not entirely clear who is right, but neither is willing to give in.
The most powerful man in the world and one of the richest have launched into a fight that this Monday has gained intensity.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, threw the first stone on Friday in a tweet.
The White House has gone to great lengths to respond, through statements and its new spokesperson, who is taking office for the first time.
President Joe Biden recently introduced an inflation plan that had few effective economic measures to combat it, at least in the short term.
There were more declarations of intent and announcements of a political nature.
Last Friday, Biden tweeted: Do you want to lower inflation?
Let's make sure the richest companies pay their fair share."
The inflation rate is at 8.3%, at the highest levels in four decades.
The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead.
Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss.
Taming inflation is critical to discuss.
Mushing them together is just misdirection.
https://t.co/ye4XiNNc2v
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 14, 2022
The tweet had thousands of comments, replies and quotes.
Among all of them, one was that of Bezos, the second richest man in the world: “The newly created Disinformation Council should review this tweet (...).
It's okay to discuss raising corporate taxes.
Controlling inflation is essential.
Putting the two together is just a distraction,” he wrote on Friday.
Although a restrictive fiscal policy and, therefore, tax increases, contribute to cooling the economy and thereby take some pressure off the cauldron of price increases, a conclusion such as the one in Biden's tweet is enormously simplistic.
return to the load
Before a user of the social network who agreed with Bezos, he insisted on Sunday: "In fact, the Administration made an effort to inject even more stimulus into an already overheated and inflationary economy and only Manchin [Democratic senator who opposed Biden's biggest-spending programs] saved them from themselves.
Inflation is a regressive tax that hurts the least well off the most.
Distraction doesn't help the country,” he tweeted again.
The White House entered the rag through its deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates, who signed a statement: "It does not take a great deal of effort to understand why one of the richest individuals on Earth opposes an economic agenda for the middle class that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights long-term inflation, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the president is achieving by asking wealthier taxpayers and businesses to pay his fair share," it said, ending: "It's also not surprising that this tweet comes after the president met with unionists, including Amazon employees."
Jeff Bezos' company, worth some $135 billion, has been battling union action at its warehouses.
He has fired several managers at a New York warehouse where employees approved unionizing and has fought to prevent that movement from spreading.
Therefore, the White House reference was a direct attack on him.
Look, squirrel!
This is the White House's statement about my recent tweets.
They understandably want to muddy the topic.
They know inflation hurts the neediest the most.
But unions aren't causing inflation and neither are wealthy people.
Remember the Administration tried… pic.twitter.com/GaMb3Kiu72
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 16, 2022
Bezos has stirred up this Monday: “Look, a squirrel!” he tweeted, implying that the government wanted to divert attention.
“This is the White House statement on my latest tweets.
It is understandable that they want to muddy the issue.
They know that inflation hurts the most needy the most.
But unions aren't causing inflation and neither are rich people.
Remember that the Administration went to great lengths to add another 3.5 BILLION dollars to federal spending.
They failed, but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today and current inflation is at its highest level in 40 years," he said, ignoring that this was a 10-year plan and that he should be financed with taxes, without in principle implying a greater inflationary impulse.
At the press conference that marked her debut as White House spokeswoman after the departure of Jen Psaki, Karine Jean-Pierre elaborated on the arguments in the statement: "It is not a huge mystery why one of the richest people in the world it opposes an agenda for the middle classes,” he said.
Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, intervened on the social network to criticize Bezos: “It is perfectly reasonable to think, as I do and the president affirms, that we should raise taxes to reduce demand to contain inflation and that these increases must be as progressive as possible,” he wrote.
