Inflation is back. Biden should be worried
New York(CNN Business)
It's time to sound the inflation alarm inside the White House.
From used cars and gasoline to lumber and food, prices are surging. The return of inflation, after a decades-long absence, is squeezing families and businesses recovering from the pandemic.
In many ways, higher prices can be seen as evidence that President Joe Biden's economic and health policies are working. The successful rollout of vaccines is allowing companies to reopen and Americans to resume traveling, spending and working. Growth is being turbo-charged by rock-bottom interest rates and unprecedented fiscal stimulus.
For many years, the nightmare for the US economy was a Japanese-style spiral of falling prices. Now, the risk for the White House is an economy that overheats, forcing the Federal Reserve to cool it down by raising interest rates so aggressively that it short-circuits the Biden boom, both on Main Street and Wall Street.
The return of inflation also undermines Biden's efforts to ease inequality. That's because higher prices on essentials are most painful for low-income families — the same ones hit hardest by the pandemic.
"The cruel thing about this is, once again, the little guy is being hurt," Richard Fisher, former president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, told CNN Business.
Larry Summers, the Clinton-era Treasury secretary, is sounding the alarm on inflation via a series of increasingly urgent warnings.
In an op-ed titled "The inflation risk is real," Summers wrote in the Washington Post Monday that overheating is now the "primary risk" facing the US economy. The former Obama official said the Fed may need to begin to tighten policy and urged the Biden administration to "move past emergency policies," including addressing a growing shortage of workers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...ss/inflation-economic-growth-biden/index.html
New York(CNN Business)
It's time to sound the inflation alarm inside the White House.
From used cars and gasoline to lumber and food, prices are surging. The return of inflation, after a decades-long absence, is squeezing families and businesses recovering from the pandemic.
In many ways, higher prices can be seen as evidence that President Joe Biden's economic and health policies are working. The successful rollout of vaccines is allowing companies to reopen and Americans to resume traveling, spending and working. Growth is being turbo-charged by rock-bottom interest rates and unprecedented fiscal stimulus.
For many years, the nightmare for the US economy was a Japanese-style spiral of falling prices. Now, the risk for the White House is an economy that overheats, forcing the Federal Reserve to cool it down by raising interest rates so aggressively that it short-circuits the Biden boom, both on Main Street and Wall Street.
The return of inflation also undermines Biden's efforts to ease inequality. That's because higher prices on essentials are most painful for low-income families — the same ones hit hardest by the pandemic.
"The cruel thing about this is, once again, the little guy is being hurt," Richard Fisher, former president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, told CNN Business.
Larry Summers, the Clinton-era Treasury secretary, is sounding the alarm on inflation via a series of increasingly urgent warnings.
In an op-ed titled "The inflation risk is real," Summers wrote in the Washington Post Monday that overheating is now the "primary risk" facing the US economy. The former Obama official said the Fed may need to begin to tighten policy and urged the Biden administration to "move past emergency policies," including addressing a growing shortage of workers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...ss/inflation-economic-growth-biden/index.html
nothing to worry about... just run them stimulus checks and pass the 2 trillion dollar jobs act.
