Americans are facing 40-year high inflation and there’s been no shortage of discussion on the topic. It’s the number one issue on the mind of Americans heading into the midterms, and every day on TV and in newspapers pundits are debating how long it will last and deciding who is to blame.
What’s most astonishing amid the flurry of news is just how badly the commentary misses. While there is broad agreement that the US is experiencing dangerously high inflation, partisanship and ideology have polluted basic economics.
Progressive politicians like Robert Reich and Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweet incessantly that “corporate greed” is to blame, an idea even Democratic economists have summarily dismissed. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has blamed Vladimir Putin. Republicans, on the other hand, have consistently made the case that Joe Biden is the inflation culprit.
All of these explanations are entirely or mostly wrong.