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Krugman Says He Was Wrong About Inflation, Summers Talks Recession, Biden Criticized Over ‘Half-Truths and Fibs’ – Finance Bitcoin News
In mid-June, red-hot inflation reared its ugly head again in America, as the latest report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI) indicated that June inflation rose at the fastest pace in over 40 years. US President Joe Biden has been in office for 18 months now and media reports are starting to note that his administration was wrong about inflation and his administration has made “dubious claims about peak inflation”. Meanwhile, the Biden administration and a few reports suggest there are “signs that inflation may have peaked” in the US, as commodity and oil prices have fallen recently.
Paul Krugman Says “I Was Wrong About Inflation,” Larry Summers Claims “Odds Are Probably Better Than Half That A Recession Will Start Next Year”
On July 13, Bitcoin.com News reported on the June CPI report that noted inflation measures that month reflected a 9.1% year-over-year increase. The increase in inflation in America recorded in June 2022 rose at the fastest pace since November 1981. The White House at the time noted that the CPI report was already out of date on the day the Bureau of Labor published the data.
After the latest CPI data, reports noted that West Virginia’s Senator Joe Manchin rejected Biden’s climate bill due to inflation concerns. While the incumbent president has been heavily criticized for inflation, senior White House correspondent Alexander Nazaryan emphasized in an editorial on July 15 that inflation has become “Biden’s political nightmare.”
Inflation has jumped so high that the American economist and Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman, wrote an article for the New York Times noting that he was “wrong about inflation”. Krugman spoke specifically about the US bailout and he mentioned that some economists warned that it would lead to rising inflation. Krugman said that, like many other Keynesian economists, he was more “relaxed” about the stimulus package.
“As it turned out, of course, it was a very bad call,” Krugman wrote on July 21.
Krugman also quickly mentioned Larry Summers, a former economic adviser to ex-President Barack Obama. Summers spoke about a recession recently at the Aspen Security Forum. Summers explained that “the odds are probably better than half that a recession will start next year.” The economist also touched on the prices of crude oil and raw materials, highlighting further problems with “the geopolitical situation”.
“I think this will depend a lot on what happens outside the financial realm,” Summers said at the Aspen Security Forum. “It will also depend on how lucky and, you know, how skilled they are [Federal Reserve] turns out to be … They have a very, very difficult balance sheet problem in terms of setting monetary policy, given the situation we’re in,” he added.
Biden’s “Half-Truths and outright fibs” called out
A few recently published reports have begun to call out the Biden administration’s “dubious claims about peak inflation.” For example, Kevin A. Hasset, a writer from nationalreview.com discussed Biden’s apologies and a “new all-time low for economic communication.”
“Biden even claims that two negative quarters in a row is not a recession,” writes Hasset. Hasset, senior adviser to the National Review Capital Matters, concludes by saying “students of economic history know better. Indeed, there will be no controversy whatsoever when the story of this year is written, and that story is worth remembering as the spinner spins.”
On July 20, 2022, two opinion contributors for The Hill, EJ Antoni and Stephen Moore, published a post titled “Biden’s Six Favorite Lies About Inflation and the Economy.” The authors summarize “the most economically consequential deceptions of the Biden administration.”
Deceptions include telling people “Nobody making less than four hundred thousand dollars will have their taxes raised,” which turned out to be untrue. The authors criticized the White House for saying inflation is worse everywhere except in the United States, and when Biden said the economy stalled when he took office 18 months ago. Moore and Antoni accuse Biden of exaggerating, such as when the US president told the press that he was responsible for the strongest job-creating economy in modern times.
“This is more of an exaggeration than a bold-faced lie,” wrote The Hill’s opinion contributors. Finally, the writers embarrass Biden for saying that American families have less debt and savings under his administration, and how Biden has noted that he has done everything he can to lower gas prices.
“Perhaps none of these half-truths and outright fibs should be too surprising — What can we expect from the administration that first denied inflation, then said inflation was temporary, then claimed it was just a high-class problem?” conclude the opinion writers.
Meanwhile, so is Biden accused telling people that if they were vaccinated they would not get Covid-19, at least four times in the past. Still, the US president is currently in isolation for contracting the disease after taking all recommended vaccinations and boosters.
Moreover, a report published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) now claims “there are signs that inflation may have peaked,” according to specific signals in the US economy. The WSJ quotes Evercore ISI chairman Ed Hyman as “pointing to many indicators that 9.1% may have been the peak.”
What do you think of Krugman’s latest article and Summer’s odds regarding a US recession? What do you think about the success that US President Joe Biden receives for his statements about the economy? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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