Was Larry Summers Right About Inflation All Along?

Larry Summers is damned ugy.

The prices we have to pay this year are damned uglier.

CNBC poll released today

Janet Yellen apparently also warned about inflation:

Of course he was right.

Larry Summers has seldom been right. That's why he's no longer president of Harvard.

Why should he start now?

Only 10 million or so people have to lose their jobs.... Larry's won't be one of them.

Stop trying to make recession happen.

We're not in recession.

I warned Biden not to appoint a woman as Secretary of the Treasury. Everyone knows that women can’t do math.

There is inflation pretty much everywhere. Blaming it on Biden’s COVID relief bill is ridiculous. Did Biden’s bill cause inflation in Germany, Italy, and the UK as well? Summers was against BBB because he and his rich buddies hate the idea of helping the poor and the working class. Was Summers bitching about the threat of inflation when the Federal Reserve was doing trillions of dollars of quantitative easing for Wall Street?

60 percent of the inflation happening right now is driven by corporate profit.

It wasn't Biden's American Rescue Plan that resulted in inflation. It was Trump's Paycheck Protection Program that doled out $trillions to millionaires. The ARP supported poor and working people through an increase in the Federal minimum wage, stimulus check for those making less than $75k, and unemployment insurance extensions. These people used it to pay rent, buy food, and cover basic needs. Trump's PPP program awarded corporations and business owners with funds supposedly to pay continuing salaries, but somehow the majority was not used for that purpose; layoffs ensued, and there has been little done to investigate and/or recover those funds. It was only huge cases (like Ruth Chris' Steak House) that ended up turning down the free money after they were caught taking it and still laying people off. Meanwhile, sales of Rolls-Royces, Philip Patek watches and other highest-of-the-high-end soared.

And now, corporations are raising prices simply because they can. That Biden takes the blame for Trump's inflation is just icing on their cake, as usual.

So, no, Larry Summers was not right.

That asshole Larry Summers hasn't been right about anything since 1997.

Even the graduate students he used to grope were lousy choices.

Let’s boycott ridiculous prices when we can. Stop buying overpriced items Tamp down raging consumer demand!

There will be no great recession, there will be no millions of layoffs, there will be no mass unemployment. After the midterms, all those things will improve drastically, and Biden will be a rock God. It's only a matter of months before it starts to play out for the better. Just hold tight people, don't lose your heads and roll over for Putin. That's what the Soviet Monster wants...

And the lawsuits over PPP loan fraud are just getting started.

A boom time for financial litigation attorneys!

Yes he was right

No, he was wrong.

I’m so tired of hearing about Larry Summer (a Democrat!) from people who have never listened to him before and never will again. He’s not the only economist in the country - or even the best one.

The Great Reset and the Covid Scam. Long planned.

Those things will improve drastically r14 because of heavy Democrat losses and the impending impeachment of this fraudulent administration.

Yes excess money in the economy can be partially responsible for inflation. But the three main reasons for the inflation are supply chain issues, companies gouging their prices, and people hoarding goods.

Duh.

The free money printer is horseshit. Huge, unchecked government graft with no oversight. Insanity.

[quote] But the three main reasons for the inflation are supply chain issues, companies gouging their prices, and people hoarding goods.

That’s like saying the main reasons for an arson fire were flammable materials and an accelerant, instead of a person deliberately setting the fire. The reasons you gave are just things that could make the inflation caused by Biden’s two trillion dollar blunder even worse and were not the trigger.

Larry Summers is only right in his own mind.

It's not exactly a brilliant insight to predict that a massive transfer of cash from the government to consumers would result in inflation.

R25 And yet the Fed denied it for all of 2020 and 2021. At least Summers spoke up.

People weren't bidding up the price of things.

They were spending money on necessities that they would have spent anyway.

[QUOTE] It's not exactly a brilliant insight to predict that a massive transfer of cash from the government to consumers would result in inflation.

Do you not see all the posters in here before you saying that’s not the cause, R25?

[quote] It's not exactly a brilliant insight to predict that a massive transfer of cash from the government to consumers would result in inflation.

If the Democrats had not enacted the extremely terrible $2T giveaway, we would not have the inflation we have, regardless of the other pressures. With less money in consumer’s hands trying to buy stuff, it would have kept the inflationary pressure of the DoT’s mismanaged supply chain issues in check.

There is going to be much pain to bring inflation back under control. Inflation is going to claw back all that “free” money from recipients and then some.

R29 The bad decisions stretch back long before that. This is the natural conclusion of over a decade of quantitative easing. Both parties are to blame.

R30, stacking up a lot of material that could catch fire is not the same as lighting a match and actually setting it on fire. We wouldn’t have the current rate of inflation without the $2T that ignited it.

What about the $5T* TFG spent, R31? Or is this all Joe Biden's fault because it suits your narrative?

* not including everything that was "off the books" as Republicans like to say.

And it all went to breeders and their rotten crotch goblins....

Are we also forgetting Trumps tax breaks for the rich?

He was wrong and he personally exemplifies what is wrong with the entire field of economics.

No. And, a LOT of this "inflation" is simply price gouging.

Prices continue to fall and regulate.

President Biden Job Approval - Economy

RCP Average Approval 37.5

Disapproval 58.8

President Biden Approval - Inflation

RCP Average Approval 34.3

Disapproval 61.8

R37, chew on this: In 2020, The New York Times noted that since 2017, when a large number of its straight news journalists were laid off, RealClearPolitics has had a rightward, pro-Trump turn with donations to its affiliated nonprofit increasing, with much of that from entities used by wealthy conservatives. Several journalists who talked to The New York Times in 2020 said they never felt any pressure from the site's founders to bias their stories.[12] The New York Times also said that "Real Clear became one of the most prominent platforms for elevating unverified and reckless stories about the president's political opponents, through a mix of its own content and articles from across conservative media" and that for days after the election, "Real Clear Politics gave top billing to stories that reinforced the false narrative that the president could still somehow eke out a win."[12]