Summers: We’re Closer to 70s-Level Inflation Than Most Realize

[mystery-ak]

Summers: We’re Closer to 70s-Level Inflation Than Most Realize

Ian Hanchett
16 Apr 2022

During an interview aired on Friday’s edition of Bloomberg’s “Wall Street Week,” economist, Harvard Professor, Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama, and Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton Larry Summers argued that “we’re actually closer to being back” to the inflation levels of the 1970s than most realize.

Summers stated, “Look, there’s been an effort, as there always is when you have inflation, to dismiss it as due to specific or temporary factors. That is much more wrong than right. You can see it when you take out all the extreme observations in both directions…you can see it, as I’ve emphasized, by looking at the wages, which are the ultimate source of costs in the economy. We’ve got a pretty fundamental inflation problem in our country. You know, David, I saw something recently that brought this home to me. People think of us as having had 13%, 14% inflation in the 1970s. But that’s only because of the way it was calculated then. If you use the same way we calculate inflation now, it got just above 10% in the 1970s. So, getting to 8.5%, we’re actually closer to being back there than I think most people realize.”

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https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/04/16/summers-were-closer-to-70s-level-inflation-than-most-realize/

[Kamaji]

We're closer to 1970s style stagflation than most realize.

[jmyrlefuller]

Closer to? By my understanding, we're already there. The only difference is that interest rates haven't caught up to match.

[libertybele]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch .... the Chief Idiot is brainstorming (spewing as much b.s. as possible)

Biden pushes for innovation bill to help ‘urgently’ address inflation

President Biden on Thursday acknowledged the urgent need to lower costs for Americans, calling on Congress to pass a bipartisan innovation bill as one way to do so.

Biden, speaking at North Carolina A&T University, noted the Labor Department’s inflation report that came out earlier this week showed prices continued to rise over the last month as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spiked the cost of oil and other goods.

“What people don’t know is that 70 percent of the increase in inflation was a consequence of Putin’s price hike because of the impact on oil prices. 70 percent,” Biden said. “We need to address these high prices, and urgently for working folks out there. And that’s part of why what I’m going to talk to you about today, why it’s so important.”

Biden argued for passage of the Bipartisan Innovation Act, legislation that has yet to make it through Congress but that would provide funding for domestic manufacturing of semiconductors and other materials that would make the U.S. less dependent on foreign supply chains............

https://thehill.com/news/administration/3267891-biden-pushes-for-innovation-bill-to-help-urgently-address-inflation/

[roamer_1]

We're closer to 1970s style stagflation than most realize.

I think we are actually past that, considering how much more watered down the dollar is to start with. There ain't very much bounce left in the bottom.

[Wingnut]

I'm sure they could bring Jimmah the Peanut back to advise Biden on how to help solve this.

[Hoodat]

If anyone would know 70s-level inflation, that would be Larry Summers.  He was a huge supporter.

[Wingnut]

The great thing about living through the 70's in 2022 is having lived though the 70's.  So I know what is coming under Binden.

[jmyrlefuller]

The great thing about living through the 70's in 2022 is having lived though the 70's.  So I know what is coming under Binden.

Oh God, not Disco!

[Wingnut]

Oh God, not Disco!

SHit happens!  LOL

[libertybele]

Oh God, not Disco!

I have to agree with you on that one @jmyrlefuller   No Disco!!

[Kamaji]

Oh God, not Disco!

[libertybele]

[Kamaji]

@libertybele

[mountaineer]

Fears of recession are everywhere — except at the clueless White House
By Post Editorial Board   
April 16, 2022 7:52pm

With prices soaring, labor shortages, the Ukraine war raging, supply-chains snarled and interest rates now set to rise, fears of a looming recession are everywhere. Except, of course, at the White House — which is in utter denial.

Just as it was over inflation.

“‘Inflation shock’ worsening, ‘rates shock’ just beginning, ‘recession shock’ coming,” blared Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett in a note to clients.

“We anticipate that a more aggressive tightening of monetary policy will push the economy into a recession,” warns Deutsche Bank’s economists.  ...

Indeed, Summers notes that there’s never been “a moment in the United States when inflation was above 4[%] and unemployment was below 4[%]” — as now — “and we didn’t have a recession within the next two years.”

But the White House is all happy talk. Asked if Biden believes Summers is right about recession, as he was about inflation, White House flack Jen Psaki huffed, “That is not a projection we have made.” And National Economic Council Director Brian Deese claims the administration has “driven a uniquely strong economic recovery” that “positions us uniquely well to deal with the challenges ahead.”

Sorry: It was Bidenomics — the war on energy, Dems’ nearly $2 trillion debt-fueled American Rescue Plan spending spree — that sparked Bidenflation in the first place. Now the same cure pretends it’s going to fix its disastrous mistake, even while it sticks to the same course?  ...

NY POST

[libertybele]

Sorry: It was Bidenomics — the war on energy, Dems’ nearly $2 trillion debt-fueled American Rescue Plan spending spree — that sparked Bidenflation in the first place. Now the same cure pretends it’s going to fix its disastrous mistake, even while it sticks to the same course?

   With Bidenomics and Bidenflation I see Bidendepression on the horizon. 

[mountaineer]

 Opinion: Inflation inequality is hitting the working class harder than at any other time on record
Families that rely on wage income from certain occupations, such as clerical work, sales and construction, are paying more as gas, food and vehicle prices surge.
Last Updated: April 16, 2022 at 10:06 a.m. ET
First Published: April 14, 2022 at 4:12 p.m. ET
By Rex Nutting



America’s working class is getting clobbered by inflation because wage earners spend a larger share of their income on the things that are going up in price the most, especially necessities such as food, gasoline, and cars and trucks. ... More at Market Watch

[catfish1957]

Based on my own watching, I am guessing we are now at a trajectory of somewhere between 15-20%, and trending higher.

The Shanghai bottleneck hasn't even worked through the system. 

[catfish1957]

The great thing about living through the 70's in 2022 is having lived though the 70's.  So I know what is coming under Binden.

Remember back in those days, all the prices were stamped on products, not stickers, or IPC codes, etc.  You didn't need a "use buy" date on the product.  You just used the cheapest first.

[Hoodat]

Oh God, not Disco!

Now you've done it.

[libertybele]

A little "Disco Inferno" --    (Since we're in the 70's might as well  )


www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5lSeYd_riw

[catfish1957]

At least I didn't have to see John Revolta.

Disco Sucks.....   (My 1976 anthem)

[Wingnut]

The Day Disco died. Disco Demolition night 1979.