NEW: Federal Reserve to stop calling current inflation "transitory," will likely lean towards describing it as "persistent" - MarketWatch

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4985758&forum_id=2#43614894)

Then Biden permanently increased food stamps by 25%

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4985758&forum_id=2#43614917)

====

Paul Krugman, May 7: “[Treasury secretary] Janet Yellen and I believe that the Fed can contain any inflationary risks.”

Paul Krugman, June 21: “For those paying closer attention to the flow of new information, inflation panic is, you know, so last week.”

Paul Krugman, July 23: “Overheating is still possible, and the Fed should keep its eye on that possibility. But the big numbers aren’t as scary as they seem.”

Paul Krugman, August 12: “Anxiety about the inflationary impact of public investment just doesn’t make sense if you work through the numbers.”

Paul Krugman, September 10: “Companies aren’t acting as if they expect lots of future inflation, where they can hike wages without losing competitive advantage. They’re acting, instead, as if they see current inflation as a blip.”

Paul Krugman, November 11: “So yes, that was an ugly inflation report, and we hope that future reports will look better. But people making knee-jerk comparisons with the 1970s and screaming about stagflation are looking at the wrong history. When you look at the right history, it tells you not to panic.”

The New York Times, this morning:

Inflation jumped to the highest level in nearly 40 years, fresh data released on Friday showed, as supply chain disruptions, rapid consumer demand and rising housing costs combined to fuel the strongest inflationary burst in a generation (emphasis added).

The rising costs spell trouble for officials at the Federal Reserve and the White House, who are trying to calibrate policy at a moment when the labor market has yet to completely heal from the pandemic, but the risk that price increases could become more lasting is increasing.

The Consumer Price Index climbed by 6.8 percent in the year through November, the data showed, the fastest pace since 1982.

One of the reasons inflation is such a serious problem right now is that we have an administration, a Fed, and a lot of ideologically or politically aligned economic elites who are wedded to the belief that inflation is not a serious problem.

Paul Krugman

@paulkrugman

"Inflation especially hurts the poor" has truthiness — it sounds like it should be true. But I don't see either evidence or a mechanism 4/

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4985758&forum_id=2#43614925)

There is a lot of logistical/supply chain stuff going on too but the longer that goes on the more it’s conflated or intertwined with inflation proper

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4985758&forum_id=2#43615031)

Business owners see prices going up so they think they can raise prices too, even if they aren't being impacted by supply chain stuff.

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4985758&forum_id=2#43615059)