Five facts about inflation
Five facts about inflation
Inflation in the United States and Europe differs and is intertwined. The Fed's aggressive interest rate increases this year to fight inflation have consequences at home and abroad.
Today’s post is a talk I gave in Berlin last week on inflation. I visited Germany for two weeks as a Visiting International Fellow at the Institute for Macroeconomic Policy (IMK) and had the privilege to meet with several macroeconomic policy experts and economic advisors in the government. Inflation was a topic of concern throughout, including my advice on designing direct payments to families to minimize inflationary effects and maximize relief. I will write about my advice in a future post. Now, let’s start with the facts.
Twenty-minute video
Twitter thread
Please leave any questions or comments on my talk that you have below. I only scratch the surface of the conversations we should be having now about inflation. Even so, my five facts are often missing from discussions, especially the global effects.
Links to references:
Transcript of Fed Chair Powell’s Press Conference, September 21, 2022
Interview with Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Florian Schmidt on 15 September 2022.
“Supply- and Demand-Driven PCE Inflation” by Adam Shapiro, Vice President
Macro Analysis and Economic Geography at the San Francisco Fed.
“Currencies almost everywhere have plunged this year against the dollar,” Bloomberg. September 19. 2022.
Producer price index in the United States and Germany through August 2022.
Surveys of Consumers from the University of Michigan, Preliminary results for September 2022.
“Who is inflation hurting and what to do about it?” by Claudia Sahm. Source data: Bureau Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey.
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Excellent presentation. I wish the Federal Reserve would open their eyes/ears.
Thank you for a very insightful summary of rather complex data. The reality of countries, under certain conditions, partially exporting their inflation was particularly thought provoking!