International

Rising US Inflation May Make Trump President Again – Fmr. Treasury Chief

Published

3 years ago

Nov 16, 2021.

US consumers prices surged at the fastest rate in 30 years in October

When voters feel pain in the pocketbook, politicians beware, according to former United States Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

In a string of threads posted on Twitter on Monday, he warned that rising inflation risks landing former President Donald Trump back in the White House.

“Excessive inflation and a sense that it was not being controlled helped elect Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and risks bringing Donald Trump back to power,” Summers warned.

US consumers prices surged at the fastest rate in 30 years in October, the US Department of Labor said last week.

Supply chain snarls and shortages of raw materials and workers are raising prices for US businesses, which in turn are increasingly passing those higher costs on to American consumers.

That matters deeply to the health of the US economy given that two-thirds of its growth is driven by consumer spending.

Rising inflation and the perception that not enough is being done to contain rising prices helped drive US consumer confidence to a 10-year low in November, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey.

So far, the steward of the US economy, the Federal Reserve, has been unconcerned about this year’s rise in inflation, insisting that price pressures will prove “transitory” and eventually ease down.

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