“After years of hypocrisy and bungled forecasts of doom, the budget deficit no longer provokes panic,†economist Max Sawicky recently wrote in In These Times. “The elites need a new bogeyman, otherwise Congress might actually spend us into happiness. Now, the new monster in the closet is Inflation.†With all eyes on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which would entail massive and sorely needed social investments in education, healthcare, childcare, clean energy, and more, a familiar chorus of budgetary hand wringers has emerged to argue that such social spending is the cause of increased inflation. As Sawicky argues, that’s nonsense.
In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, now available in video form, Marc and Sawicky break down the current levels of inflation and discuss the political motivations behind the moral panic over inflation, which is essentially a new form of old-school deficit hawkery. Max Sawicky is an economist, writer, and senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research; he has worked at the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Government Accountability Office.
Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Monday and Thursday on TRNN.
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Stephen Frank, Dwayne Gladden
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Why? Because basic services and other things cost more and yet they are paying less interest than ever at the bank. Because taxes are going up and the amount of money I have in the bank is going down. Because salary and retirement savings don't keep up with inflation. They mostly lag or go down. That is why inflation is a monster sir.
Look at pre-WWII Germany, there's no better example of the dangers of inflation!
Yes, but inflation is often due to unethical criminal financial actions, as well when there's scenarios that occur outside of the range of management..
Inflation is the theft of a person's life savings. Spend your money today while it has value. Inflation is not the increase in prices it's the devaluation of the baseless currency we call a dollar.
Try getting Richard Wolff if you want to interview an economist.
I spit out my drink laughing when I saw the cover picture.
Max's take on inflation is correct from purely a numbers standpoint, but he fails to mention corporate greed/power and the fact that most peoples' wages have been declining in real terms for decades. All that extra money is being hoovered up and sent to the top 1%. Check out wikipedia's article on wealth inequality in the U.S. to see what I mean. As he mentioned also, housing/medical costs have skyrocketed over many years. It's not food/gas that fucks me, and I'm super low income. It's rent, and I can't even afford health insurance so I just go without. Most people aren't willing to make that sacrifice so they get all their $ taken away by medical insurance/rent. Let's not forget also, being able to keep driving on the road, another very expensive thing to do. Food? Gas? Nah… how about purchasing/maintaining vehicles? How about passing emissions… I'm about to have to spend nearly 2k to keep on the road. Food? Gas? PLEASE that's nothing.
Print Dollars + Shutdown Production = Dollars are worthless not exactly rocket science
Damn- when did Steiner get an inflated budget?
Oh how The RNN has fallen. This is propaganda through and through.
Incessant money printing tends to lead to inflation. This is basic economics.
Misleading your audience, who must be largely ignorant to economics, is a pathetic action to take. 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™‚ï¸
inflation isn't a problem for the rich who simply buy expensive safe assets like property…for them inflation just means their assets gain value and they can raise rental income ….this video is a joke
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The inflation we are currently experiencing is cost-push inflation not demand-pull. This inflation is about supply chain disruptions and business is price gouging. The Dems and the Republicans can't sell the debt and deficit crap anymore so now they're turning to inflation. Professor Stephanie Kelton Bernie Sanders Chief economist learn mmt please
Mainstream media mud aside … These guys still have faith in money economics and growth âš°ï¸ðŸ‘ŽðŸ½ what a bunch of epic fails 👎ðŸ½âš°ï¸ðŸ•³ï¸
Several sources of inflation were not explored: (1) Fed's QE (2) oil refineries (3) oil production (US is the largest producer) (4) sanctions (5) big pharma
The banks don't like inflation because debt is repaid with inflated dollars.
Gas prices went up where I live but haven't changed in at least 4 weeks. And I don't see the reported big inflation in food prices, either. It seems that news about inflation is itself, well, inflated.
Max say everything OK.
This exchange which has no clue what "inflation" is is essentially pointless.
WELL…. If I was running stuff… I wouldnt PRINT new money to get the country back on its feet. I would go and get back the money that was printed already for a few decades, in form of heavily taxing the rich, to get the country back on its feet. We all know where the "Build back better" money will end up anyway. Same place as always.