By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Creighton University economist Ernie Goss noted as part of his Mid-America Business Conditions Index survey released this week that Kansas is doing well in some economic measures, but not in others.
"Wage growth is not as strong in Kansas," Goss said. "If you see business travel begin to increase for Kansas, that will sort itself out. For Kansas, the best news is agriculture and those linked to agriculture are doing very well in Kansas, even there, we've seen some softening in terms of farm income and commodity prices, but that looks pretty good."
Goss notes that it is still hard to parse out the difference between the muscle of good economic growth and the fat of inflation.
"The answer is somewhere in between," Goss said. "The Fed says it is transitory. A lot of folks say it's non-transitory, it's embedded inflation. I think the answer is, it's somewhere between the two. We're looking at inflation now running above four percent. That's double what the Fed is accepting."
Goss noted that Goldman Sachs believes oil prices will still go up from here.
"The Biden administration has taken the approach that, well, the higher price is not such a bad thing, it encourages us to move to alternative energy," Goss said. "They killed the Keystone XL pipeline. That was an $8 to $9 billion investment by the Canadians to ship oil from the tar sands in Canada down through the midsection of the country, also cutting back on drilling on federal land, that's part of the plan, I would argue."
Goss said with regard to one inflationary force, that Republicans will likely save President Biden from himself, in terms of cutting the size of some of his ambitious government expansion plans.