{"id":398053,"date":"2021-05-18T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=398053"},"modified":"2021-05-19T15:20:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T19:20:34","slug":"limbaugh-echo-larry-summers-warns-biden-on-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2021\/05\/18\/limbaugh-echo-larry-summers-warns-biden-on-inflation\/","title":{"rendered":"Limbaugh Echo: Larry Summers Warns Biden on Inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRETT: We\u2019re starting to see a circumstance form that we haven\u2019t seen in a very long time. You\u2019re hearing analogies to the Carter administration on foreign policy fronts, on the cost of gasoline, on the scarcity of gasoline — and, of course, on the I-word, inflation. We\u2019re starting to see inflation in the economy, and it\u2019s becoming worrisome for a number of people.<\/p>\n

You try to put a wooden fence in your yard, good luck on buying lumber. Steel has gotten expensive. We had a call from someone yesterday on that very point. Inflation is beginning to manifest itself because we\u2019re pumping so much cash into the economy from government coffers that we\u2019re borrowing that you\u2019ve got too many dollars chasing too few commodities that are out there.<\/p>\n

\"\"Larry Summers is one of these guys who\u2019s starting to raise this alarm. CNN\u2019s John Berman invited economist Larry Summers on to New Day. It was John Berman and Brianna Keilar yesterday morning. Remember, Larry Summers is president emeritus at Harvard University.<\/p>\n

He served as the 71st secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and the director of the National Economic Council for President Obama. He\u2019s sour on Biden\u2019s administration. He didn\u2019t hold back on why when appearing yesterday morning to point out that the Biden camp is overheating the economy and causing inflation.<\/p>\n

SUMMERS: I look at the facts and the amount of money we\u2019re putting into households\u2019 hands relative to the capacity of the economy to produce, and I look at the serene complacency that we\u2019re in a new era and that we can increase demand almost without limit — and that we\u2019re still trying to get inflation up — that we\u2019re hearing out of Washington. I think all of that together is much larger than the kind of extra-fiscal policy we had in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

BRETT: So Berman then asks, “What would you do about it now if you were in the Biden administration?”<\/p>\n

SUMMERS: First, I\u2019d recognize that our challenge right now is no longer insufficient spending. It\u2019s the economy overheating. Second, I\u2019d support the efforts that many states are making to get people back to work by converting unemployment insurance into reemployment bonuses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But overall, this is heavily about expectations and psychology, and I think if we recognize that there is an issue and a problem and make clear a policy commitment to do what\u2019s necessary to keep us in a world of stable prices, those expectations can be self-fulfilling. But if we say, “There isn\u2019t any problem and we can let it all rip with policy,” those expectations can be self-fulfilling, too.<\/p>\n

BRETT: So, Rush talked about this and demonstrated how liberals will use inflation.<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. This is Steve. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Good afternoon. I think you\u2019re exactly right about the liberals\u2019 need for a crisis. I think there\u2019s a little long-term planning going on here and whether it\u2019s next year or the year after it\u2019s the inflation crisis. They\u2019re deliberately inflating the currency through deficit spending and monetary policy, and we\u2019re gonna hear a couple years from now that we need a greater social safety net for seniors because those on fixed income get adversely affected by inflation; for the poor, because the poor get adversely affected by inflation; and we can\u2019t deal with deficits now, we need to raise taxes on the top one half of earners.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Exactly. You\u2019ve nailed it. Excellent. Way to go. You should apply for a fellowship here. You have just nailed exactly what\u2019s going to happen. The Federal Reserve. I got a note from a professional golfer friend of mine who had just heard that the Federal Reserve is going to pump a trillion dollars into the credit markets.<\/p>\n

And the professional golfer said, “Where are we getting this?” I said, “We are printing this. We don\u2019t have this. We are printing this money,” $300 billion of it, by the way, to buy the long bond, which is causing bond yields to plummet. What else is going to happen with inflation, the value of the dollar is going to decrease, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\"\"CALLER: Absolutely.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes siree, Bob. So we\u2019re going to need exactly what you said. We\u2019re going to have to chaos. There are going to be tax increases and increased social safety net. Gasoline prices. By the way, inflation\u2019s already started. Consumer prices rose four-tenths of 1% in February. That\u2019s the largest amount in seven months. Gasoline prices went up 8%. The price… Let me check the barrel price of oil right now. Let\u2019s see. Crude oil, yeah, right here. Oh, ho! It\u2019s 51 bucks. Just last week, it was in the low forties.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And you\u2019re going to hear this as the need of the government to take over more role of energy and price of crude at the pump and every other sector they can get their hands on, college education, the works.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, don\u2019t forget, when it gets really bad, then we\u2019ll hear the need for price controls. In fact, there already are some economists out there who are now starting to sound the drums for price controls.<\/p>\n

Of course, the bourgeois love of the notion of price controls. They think that means prices will remain steady. (chuckles) They are deadly. They are one of the worst mistakes that can be made, unless you\u2019re trying to just turn everything upside down economically. That would create a depression. If that\u2019s what they want, that\u2019s how they can do it.<\/p>\n

BRETT: So you hear Rush cite a number in that conversation with the caller. Consumer prices rose four-tenths of 1% in February — this is back in \u201909 — the largest amount in seven months. Well, look at the inflation number now. The data last week showed the Consumer Price Index (that\u2019s what it costs you to buy stuff) jumped 4.2% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n

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