Who caused inflation?
It took some time, but President Biden finally admitted that inflation exists. That's not saying much, since a night out with the family or a simple glance at a grocery sales receipt would immediately confirm that.
The first question is, who caused prices to climb and why? One way to find out is to understand what causes inflation. A common understanding of inflation is that it results from too much money circulating in the economy.
The great economist Milton Friedman once stated that inflation is a dangerous and sometimes fatal disease for a society.
In 1978, Friedman reminded those attending his lecture from the University of San Diego and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce to "[r]ecognize that today governments control the quantity of money." Friedman emphasized that inflation in the United States is made in Washington and nowhere else.
Friedman could have been commenting on recent speeches given by President Biden, who blamed inflation on the greed of corporate America when he said, "If you listen to people in Washington talk, they will tell you that inflation is produced by greedy businessmen." Friedman, the recipient of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, made that observation 44 years before Biden took the oath of office.
Friedman added, "Business people don't produce inflation for the straightforward reason that they don't have a printing press in their basement. And so can't turn out those green pieces of paper called money."
The reason everyday expenses for Americans have skyrocketed and will continue to soar is the shortsighted policies of the Biden administration, the sole architects of today's staggering inflation. They did this by printing money.
It was apparent to anyone interested that the propaganda media had no desire to challenge Biden's mental ability, and Biden did not disguise his inflationary policies during the 2020 presidential primaries. In the final analysis, if we accept that Biden was nevertheless overwhelmingly elected as the most favored president in American history, then the American people who voted for him share the blame for the high price suffering in this country.
On the other hand, if the reality is that 81 million Americans did not vote for Biden, inflation, open borders, and Putin invading Ukraine are the least of our problems.
Rick Hayes is an award-winning New York City–based writer with 20 years of experience and published works within the major news industry. He holds a B.S. degree from St. John's University.
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