EP 567 How Can We Whip Inflation Now?

It’s likely that when you see double digit increases in the price of food, energy and other essentials, you are in a state of inflation.  As anyone who uses our currency, in whatever fashion knows, that’s the place we find ourselves today.  It’s having a major impact on household budgets and causing reactions in markets and in federal monetary policy.  Harder to determine is what are the factors that brought it on and what you do about it to bring those inflation numbers down.  Our guest, Nathan Lewis has co-authored a book with Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames, called ‘Inflation: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, and How To Fix It’.  They attribute our present circumstance to  the massive amount of money created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the housing crash in 2009 and in response to the  COVID-19 emergency in recent years.  In their view that has significantly weakened the value of the dollar.  Others say that supply chain issues and the quicker than anticipated rate of recovery have overheated the economy.  In any event, as impactful as inflation is the dollar is still king among all currencies and borrowers still buy U.S. debt.  Our discussion got to the hottest topic in financial circles: Modern Monetary Theory.  You need to be aware of what it is, agree or disagree with it.

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