The New York Times — Wrongly — Warns That Trump Would Cause a New Wave of Inflation

The New York Times in a long piece has now officially decided that the real inflation threat is President Trump and his policies.They are wrong. So let’s review the bidding for a moment.Over Trump’s four-year term, the level of consumer prices rose by a scant 7.7 percent for his whole term — which comes to 1.9 percent annually.Meanwhile, during President Biden’s nearly completed term so far, the level of consumer prices rose 20 percent — or 6.1 percent annually.Trump is pledging to essentially reprise his successful first-term economic policies of “drill, baby, drill,” tax cuts, deregulation, and punishing unfair trade policies.So, ask yourself: if those same policies didn’t generate high inflation in his first term, why would they in a second?Of course, the New York Times takes the Biden view that inflation was transitory, caused by Covid and Vladimir Putin.So, how about this thought?Mr. Biden is running $2 trillion budget deficits as far as the eye can see, with near-record peacetime spending as a share of GDP, all this with a relatively low 4 percent unemployment rate, and a still stubbornly high inflation rate. Even John Maynard Keynes would turn over in his grave at high deficit spending with high inflation and low unemployment. Oops. The Times forgets to mention that.The article does mention that America is producing oil at roughly 13 million barrels per day.That’s where we were under Trump five years ago, though. And we should be running at 15 or 16 million barrels per day, but for the fact that Mr. Biden has put the clamps on federal drilling and exploration in Alaska, New Mexico, and offshore.Were we energy dominant today, instead of relying on our enemies like Russia and Iran, oil prices would be closer to $40 than $80.And oil costs impact hundreds of everyday consumer goods and health care services, which would have a profoundly disinflationary impact on the economy, bringing down interest rates and personal borrowing costs along the way.The Times does concede that Trump deregulation lowers business costs. Good for them, I suppose.Their biggest mistake, though, was on the Trump tax cuts.Fact remains: lower marginal tax rates on individuals and businesses increase the production of goods, raise real wages, and enhance productivity (output per hour). Now, those are all counter-inflationary effects.When marginal tax rates were slashed under JFK, Reagan, and Trump, inflation never uttered a serious peep. Not all tax cuts are the same.Temporary tax credits to spur one-time consumption spending would be inflationary because there’s no supply effects from business.Permanently lower tax rates create incentives to produce and invest, and that actually can lower inflation in many cases.Then the Times suggests that Mr. Biden’s open border catastrophe is really a good thing, because it lowers wages.Well, if there’s even a scintilla of truth to this, that’s one heck of a price to pay, blowing up sovereign boundaries with criminality alongside sex and drug trafficking.Plus, Mr. Biden has allowed in over 10 million illegals since taking office — but inflation soared. Trump wants to deport the criminal illegals, if not more. You can’t have it both ways.Employment data suggest that foreign-born jobs have sky-rocketed, while native-born jobs have plunged.With a very low employment-to-population ratio, closed borders would enhance native-born jobs, assuming government benefits don’t interfere with work effort.And then, on the question of tariffs, the Times continues the myth that tariffs cause higher inflation, even though the evidence shows that inflation did not rise during the Trump tariff increases on China’s unfair trading practices.Consumers may choose to boycott tariffed goods and services if the price is too high, or China has to slash the prices of their tariffed goods.So, the marketplace provides offsets.We should’ve learned that, but some old-line economists are too hide-bound to understand that solving unfair trading practices is an issue by itself unrelated to inflation.The principal cause of inflation is too much money chasing too few goods.Mr. Biden’s massive spending and the Fed’s enabling of that spending is a real inflationary problem, while regulatory and tax threats have smothered small business production.Trump is suggesting his successful economic policies can be repeated if he is re-elected. There’s no empirical reason to doubt him.From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.

The New York Times — Wrongly — Warns That Trump Would Cause a New Wave of Inflation

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