5 ms·

Powell: “We understand better how little we understand about inflation”

24 points by whack 4y ago

988747 4y ago
Since 2008 "not understanding inflation" was his (as well as Yellen's and Bernanke's) job description... They were printing money like there's no tomorrow, but "tomorrow" is now.
- lesuorac 4y ago
  Not too sure anybody in 2008 predicted that it would cause above average inflation _but_ not until 2022... But if you told some economist that there would be a reduction in supply they'd predict either a decrease in demand or an increase in price.
  - digisign 4y ago
    There's been incredible inflation in a few areas combined with modest inflation in other areas for decades.
- aNoob7000 4y ago
  I personally think that the FED is doing the best they can right now. Did they keep interest rate low for too long? Yes. But who could have envisioned a pandemic and then the supply/demand shock after it.
  - 988747 4y ago
    Even before pandemic there were many reasons to end "Quantitive Easing" policy, but FED failed to do their job here.
- cyanydeez 4y ago
  The fed don't have the tools to manage inflation correctly. Congress needs to be taxing all the profit taking resulting from all the tax reductions.
Blackstrat 4y ago
It’s not just QE. Couple excessive government spending, with intentional disruptions of the energy supply, and the ongoing damage from the COVID lockdowns and inflation was inevitable. Powell’s comments are concerning since it was obvious as the nose on his face.
thrown321 4y ago
It is all corporate profiteering. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/opinion/us-companies-inflation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/opinion/us-companies-infl...
- gruez 4y ago
  I'm not convinced. I skimmed the article and the key piece of evidence seems to be a linked bloomberg chart that shows corporate profit margins spiking up recently. However, if you go to the source data[1] and zoom in, you see a different picture. Specifically, profit margins were increasing the most between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021, but have since stayed mostly flat. However, that's not in line with CPI[2], which only really took off in february 2021. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NFCPATAX https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NFCPATAX [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL
  - thrown321 4y ago
    The key piece of evidence are the SEC declarations. Read them.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Proven 4y ago

24 points by whack 4y ago

Since 2008 "not understanding inflation" was his (as well as Yellen's and Bernanke's) job description... They were printing money like there's no tomorrow, but "tomorrow" is now.

lesuorac 4y ago
Not too sure anybody in 2008 predicted that it would cause above average inflation _but_ not until 2022... But if you told some economist that there would be a reduction in supply they'd predict either a decrease in demand or an increase in price.
- digisign 4y ago
  There's been incredible inflation in a few areas combined with modest inflation in other areas for decades.
aNoob7000 4y ago
I personally think that the FED is doing the best they can right now. Did they keep interest rate low for too long? Yes. But who could have envisioned a pandemic and then the supply/demand shock after it.
- 988747 4y ago
  Even before pandemic there were many reasons to end "Quantitive Easing" policy, but FED failed to do their job here.
cyanydeez 4y ago
The fed don't have the tools to manage inflation correctly. Congress needs to be taxing all the profit taking resulting from all the tax reductions.

Blackstrat 4y ago

It’s not just QE. Couple excessive government spending, with intentional disruptions of the energy supply, and the ongoing damage from the COVID lockdowns and inflation was inevitable. Powell’s comments are concerning since it was obvious as the nose on his face.

thrown321 4y ago

It is all corporate profiteering. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/opinion/us-companies-inflation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/opinion/us-companies-infl...

gruez 4y ago
I'm not convinced. I skimmed the article and the key piece of evidence seems to be a linked bloomberg chart that shows corporate profit margins spiking up recently. However, if you go to the source data[1] and zoom in, you see a different picture. Specifically, profit margins were increasing the most between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021, but have since stayed mostly flat. However, that's not in line with CPI[2], which only really took off in february 2021. [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NFCPATAX https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NFCPATAX [2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL
- thrown321 4y ago
  The key piece of evidence are the SEC declarations. Read them.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Proven 4y ago