Inflation panic is the new deficit hawkery

Published: Dec. 6, 2021, 5:20 p.m.

b'\\u201cAfter years of hypocrisy and bungled forecasts of doom, the budget deficit no longer provokes panic,\\u201d economist Max Sawicky recently wrote in In These Times. \\u201cThe elites need a new bogeyman, otherwise Congress might actually spend us into happiness. Now, the new monster in the closet is Inflation.\\u201d With all eyes on President Joe Biden\\u2019s Build Back Better plan, which would entail massive and sorely needed social investments in education, healthcare, childcare, clean energy, and more, a familiar chorus of budgetary hand-wringers has emerged to argue that such social spending is the cause of increased inflation. As Sawicky argues, that\\u2019s nonsense.

In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc and Sawicky break down the current levels of inflation and discuss the political motivations behind the moral panic over inflation, which is essentially a new form of old-school deficit hawkery. Max Sawicky is an economist, writer, and senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research; he has worked at the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Government Accountability Office.

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Pre-Production/Studio: Stephen Frank, Dwayne Gladden
Post Production: Stephen Frank

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