Unleash ProsperityReprinted, with permission, from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity‘s daily must-read Hotline email.
We have our hand on the Bible swearing we are not making this story up.
A gang of 16 Nobel prize-winning economists signed a letter yesterday endorsing Joe Biden for president because: “There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite inflation with his fiscally irresponsible budgets.”
But then our colleague, Scott Bessent, noticed something strange and ironic about the signatories: 13 of these economists signed a highly-publicized open letter three years ago assuring Americans that Biden’s “Build Back Better” spending spree would “ease longer-term inflationary pressures.”
Then — whoops! — 18 months later inflation soared to 9.1% under Biden – the worst U.S. inflation in almost 40 years! This would be the medical equivalent of amputating the wrong leg.
Here’s the overlapping list of these economists who were spectacularly wrong in 2021, but whom we are supposed to believe are right this time around.
The chef’s kiss is that the first listed signer on both letters, George Akerlof, is Janet Yellen’s husband.
We argued then that Joe Stiglitz (and the rest of these scoundrels) should do the standup thing, send back their Nobels and Ph.D.s, and admit that when it comes to the real world, they have no idea what they are talking about.
Instead, they are now predicting that if Trump is elected, he will reignite inflation even though the average inflation rate during Trump’s first term was 2.5% versus closer to 5.5% under Biden. Are these scholars so buttonholed in their ivory towers that they are unaware of this basic fact?
Here is the comparison of inflation under Trump and Biden.
The mission of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity is to educate policy makers and the public about government policies that have been proven, in practice, to maximize economic growth and equitable prosperity in America and around the world.
I & I Editorial Board
Nobels like the Pulitzers are now not awards for achievement but political awards. Obama received the Peace prize and bombed more countries than any US president since WW II. Paul Krugman Economics, was a financial advisor for ENRON and has been wrong 100% of the time since then
Maybe 85% wrong might be more accurate. Ann Coulter used him as an example in an article about how do you decide who to trust. She showed what his headline was in response to 10 news events and compared his reaction to reality as it panned out over time. She gave him half credit for one and full credit for another. She pointed out that ‘Chance’ in statistics is 10%. Her suggestion was that doing a hint better than ‘Chance’ was not a compelling reason to pay attention to that person’s opinion. I would expand on that conclusion by suggesting that it is also not a good idea to pay attention to anyone who holds Kruger et all in high regard v birds of a feather.
Graph above claims that inflation is under 4% for the last 12+ months – which is inconsistent with observed reality but is typical for government manipulated stats in dictatorships (USSR, communist China etc) and Biden administration. Same for jobs creation numbers. Which of the signers of the 2nd letter participated in or profited from such statistics manipulations and/or are afraid that this scam will become well known if Trump is reelected?
18 months is not “longer-term”, so your evidence does not apply. I don’t think “longer-term” has come yet, but inflation is down more recently, and if the trend continues, the prediction could be correct.
The San Francisco Fed released a study that 60% of the inflation in the 2 years after COVID was do to supply chain issues. Prices for everything including groceries, new cars and health insurance surged in 2021 and 2022 as the result of rampant inflation that many economists – including the San Francisco Fed – agree was caused by supply chain disruptions, an extremely tight labor market and increased consumer demand fueled by trillions in stimulus money. Inflation in fact was felt across the world in most every country post-Covid. Its also a fact that Trump created $8.3 Trillion in debt while President including 2 rounds of stimulus checks. Its that stimulus money that helped fuel inflation.
According to your “reasoning” it’s all Trump’s fault cause he could not and would not allow the economies of the west to totally collapse and possibly disintegrate yet in your eyes the “Inflation Reduction”act (proudly and arrogantly enacted by democrats without a single republican vote) had nothing to do at all with any of our economic issues! LOL! The economy was on its way back on its own but democrats could not help their spending habits and with their recently acquired congress at the time, continued the charade of a bad economy so they could spend more in what they wanted. Stupidly, they didn’t even want republicans votes. By current stats, there’s about a trillion dollars of debt added to our “long term” debt every 100 days or so. Trump has nothing to do with this but you think people are stupid and don’t realize what happened and how this mis-administration is attempting to gaslight America. You don’t have to believe me, maybe you can trust one on your side, Larry Summers warned Democrats back then of the ill-gotten idea but as usual, they knew better and did not listen.
Democraps truly are a special kind of stupid. They project more than an IMAX theater.
I’m sure all of these economists would say that Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian misinformation if they thought anyone would listen.
One can only listen to Janet Yellen’s testimony before Congress to appreciate how incompetent this group of “experts” has become. The king clearly has no clothes.
Alfred is rolling in his grave
Alfred Nobel has nothing to do with this prize established about 70 years after his death (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economic_Sciences) – but it’s very likely he wouldn’t like it.
“Scoundrels” is half-right. They should be called “Scoundrels and Denizens of the Swamp.”
These economic “wise” men are just like the previous and current operatives of the CIA who denounced Hunter’s Laptop as Russian Collusion tactics. But, 3 years afterwords the NY Post’s and Miranda Devines articles were deemed legitimate and accurate.
Meanwhile, these swine influenced an election that led to their guy (Joe Biden) destroying the US.
This should scare the beejesus out of us. Not only were these CIA gurus interfering in an election (which, I thought, was against the Hatch Act-but I’m sure Biden’s DOA will find a reason not to prosecute) but also these are and still are the “wise” men we depend on to safeguard our shores.
Now we also find out that the econ. scholars who fooled us into thinking Joe Biden would be a wonderful anti-inflationary President, reveal that Pres. Trump, who kept inflation under around 2.5%, will re-ignite the inflation that Joe Biden has created.
How do these people even look at themselves in the mirror? Don’t they have any judgement or honor?
The conclusions these people from the CIA and the Econ community come up with reflect not only on their lack of wisdom but also reveals the lack of good judgement of those people who employed them; and on the spy-tradecraft and the economics they continue to practice and with which they continue to deceive and misinform.
Asking these economists to discuss inflation under Trump is like asking Harvey Weinstein to comment on sexual harassment.
The 51 lying spies worked, so they’ll use the same tactic over and over again as long as it keeps working. I thought it was appropriate that one of the signatories is aptly named Shiller.
They’ll get their reward in the form of appointments and grants and could care less about the real-world effect of their signature on this hoax letter. It is like Krugman and Yellen telling you inflation is transitory while you are paying twice as much to fill up your car and 50% more for weekly groceries.