President Biden and former President Trump traded barbs about the U.S. economy during their first presidential debate.Neither Biden nor Trump are to blame for much of the inflation, however, economists said.
"I don't think it's a simple yes/no kind of answer," said David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank.That Biden is seen as stoking high inflation is due somewhat to optics: He took office in early 2021, around the time inflation spiked notably, economists said.
"We only have to look at the still high inflation rates in most other advanced economies to see that most of this inflation period was really about global trends ...
"I do think President Biden bears some responsibility for the inflation that we've been living through for the past few years," Strain said.added about 2 percentage points to underlying inflation. The consumer price index peaked around 9% in June 2022, the highest since 1981. "I think if it weren't for the American Rescue Plan, the U.S. still would have had inflation," Strain added."So I think it's important not to overstate the situation.
That the U.S. issued perhaps too much stimulus was the presidents' fault but"only clear in hindsight," he said.Fed officials also have some responsibility for inflation, economists said.