A new report on Sunday highlighted concerns from top economists about the impacts of Democrat President Joe Biden’s massive government spending.
“Americans should brace themselves for several years of higher inflation than they’ve seen in decades, according to economists who expect the robust post-pandemic economic recovery to fuel brisk price increases for a while,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The respondents on average now expect a widely followed measure of inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy components, to be up 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021 from a year before. They forecast the annual rise to recede to slightly less than 2.3% a year in 2022 and 2023. That would mean an average annual increase of 2.58% from 2021 through 2023, putting inflation at levels last seen in 1993.”
The report noted that inflation measures had jumped to their highest levels since the early 1990s and that the federal reserve may not raise rates for the next two years.
Economists told the newspaper:
- Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economics LLC: “We’re in a transitional phase right now. We are transitioning to a higher period of inflation and interest rates than we’ve had over the last 20 years.”
- Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton: “Inflation is expected to surge longer and longer—longer than the Fed previously thought. The Fed is now likely to raise rates in the first half of 2023, although some Fed presidents will be nipping at the bit to move sooner.”
- Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council: “The danger is that monetary authorities are behind the curve. I’m not saying hyperinflation is around the corner, just that a lot of things have come together in the last year, and the overall trend of costs across the board is growing faster than in the last five or 10 years.”
- Swift noted the havoc that inflation is having on the construction industry, saying: “It’s disruptive—you can’t be sure of what your costs are, whether you can get supplies or what the costs will be six months from now. I’d hate to be in the construction business trying to bid on a job when you don’t know what the cost of steel will be 18 months from now.”
Biden's America https://t.co/US9OrefXeK
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) July 12, 2021
Literally Biden’s America. https://t.co/mf3EkYfuem
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) July 12, 2021
Looks like #Bidenflation is here to stay https://t.co/c72N3rDWRJ
— Mike Berg (@MikeKBerg) July 12, 2021
The Biden administration apparently knows that inflation is a serious issue that they are having to face as a result of their policies. For the Fourth of July weekend, the administration bragged about saving Americans $0.16 on the cost of the total amount of food that they’ll consume on the Fourth of July.
The administration claimed that the $0.16 in savings was proof that “the Biden economic plan is working.”
The Daily Wire reported:
The claim that saving Americans a total of $0.16 on a very narrow list of items is proof that “the Biden economic plan is working” is laughable. Inflation is skyrocketing, the economy has a record-high quit rate, millions of Americans could soon face evictions, and Biden has suffered numerous disastrous job report numbers. Gas prices are higher now than they were at any point under former President Donald Trump and are the highest they’ve been since 2014. AAA said this week that they expect “crude oil prices to likely continue climbing following the holiday and through the end of summer.” Top Democrat economists have warned that the economy is at serious risk of overheating and of inflation becoming much worse. Eighty-five percent of Americans are now worried about inflation. Top investors have also warned the Biden administration “just continues to pour more gasoline on [the housing market] fire,” which they said is “making inequality worse” because “you end up subsidizing the rich at the expense of the poor.”
Larry Summers, who held top economic positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations, said during an interview last month that Biden’s policies had significantly raised the risk of the economy overheating, which would “be hard to put out the fire without doing a lot of damage and causing a lot of problems.”
A previous version of this article stated that the Biden administration did not intend to raise interest rates. It has been corrected to note that the federal reserve controls interest rates, not the Biden administration.