Wednesday, April 27, 2022

LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT INFLATIONARY SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE

 

4/27/22

 

I wrote the following letter to the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago and, given the passage of time, it will not be published, so I will no longer delay sharing it with my readers.

 

Incidentally, these letters to the Journal were written, as are all letters to that paper, in response to specific articles in its Opinion section.  However, the reader did not have to have read the original article to get the point I am making, or at least I hope not.

 

4/13/22

 

The Wall Street Journal is correct in asserting that “This Isn’t Putin’s Inflation (Review and Outlook, 4/13/22),” but isn’t only Joe Biden’s inflation, either.   As the Journal points out, President Trump “signed onto an unnecessary $900 billion Covid relief bill,” but that fiscal outrage was exceptional for Mr. Trump only in degree.  Further, Mr. Trump repeatedly criticized Jay Powell, his own selection for Fed Chair, for, laughably, being too tight on monetary policy.   Neither of Mr. Trump’s immediate predecessors could be described as a fiscal or monetary hawk, either.

 

For those of us of a traditionalist bent in our approach to economics, the most salient question regarding the current bout of inflation is why it took so long to arrive.

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