Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has finally come clean about the extent of Biden’s inflation. After months of downplaying the crisis, the top economist admitted it is anything but “transitory”.
Months ago Yellen had claimed there was only a “small risk” of inflation becoming permanent despite the fact that average Americans are paying over 10% more for many common household products.
“I think there’s a small risk and I think it’s manageable and I don’t anticipate that inflation is going to be a problem,” Expressed Yellen in a clip played for her by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
When questioned if she still believed that was the case, however, Yellen relented on her argument, admitting that she was wrong.
“I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” she told CNN in an interview.
Yellen continued, admitting they failed to predict how the economy would progress, “As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn’t – at the time, didn’t fully understand. But we recognize that now. The Federal Reserve is taking the steps that it needs to take,’ Yellen continued.”
Yellen then seemingly passed the buck onto President Joe Biden and her counterpart Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve. She said it is their duty to solve this problem and find a way to lower costs before suggesting they could do so by lowering the cost of prescription drugs.
“It’s up to them to decide what to do. And for our part, President Biden is focused on supplementing what the Fed does with actions we can take to lower the cost that Americans face for him important expenditures they have in their budget. Prescription drugs is one example,” Yellen said.
Despite the massive inflation affecting our country along with multiple supply and labor shortages, Biden and his team have adamantly maintained that their policies have not caused them. Instead, they frequently blame the war in Ukraine for increasing the cost of oil.
Despite their claims, gas prices skyrocketed before the war ever even began. Conservatives in Congress claim that this is due to Biden shutting down domestic oil production, forcing us to buy our gas from foreign countries like Russia. They also suggest that it would have helped reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian pipelines had we continued production.
While it’s good that Yellen finally admitted that inflation is a problem, it’s still concerning that they don’t seem to have any plans to stop it. Do you think Biden will be capable of freezing or reversing inflation? Why do you think he has been so slow to act?
