The "stimulus bill" whatever its merits or demerits, did not "exacerbate" inflation. The bill was not done in secret and the Fed has the instruments to adjust aggregate demand to whatever levels i considers best for achieving its inflation and employment goals, regardless of fiscal deficits.
Also even if one mistakenly believes that fiscal policy affects inflation, it is a little disingenuous to focus only on deficits occurring since Jan 2001. Do only Democratic deficits cause inflation? :)
The proper reason to criticize a president for deficits is that the are extremely likely to be the result of tax and and spending decisions that have the net effect of shifting reauorces from investment to consumption and thereby depressing future growth.
I said "macroeconomic stimulus" - which is the combined effect of the fiscal and monetary stance. As you know, I agree with you that monetary policy ultimately determines inflation. The later mention of deficits is about potential fiscal dominance if the U.S. debt situation really deteriorates.
Given the difficulty in judging how likely a particular bad idea actually to be enacted makes ia comparison quite difficult, probably not worth doing. I'd prefer to just do a one by one analysis. Mine (of Biden retrospectively, not what Harris might do) is at:
I would also point out that NOT having a Pigou tax on net CO2 emissions, departures from merit based immigration, and a non-zero deficit are enormous compared to some of the other distortions you mention.
The "stimulus bill" whatever its merits or demerits, did not "exacerbate" inflation. The bill was not done in secret and the Fed has the instruments to adjust aggregate demand to whatever levels i considers best for achieving its inflation and employment goals, regardless of fiscal deficits.
Also even if one mistakenly believes that fiscal policy affects inflation, it is a little disingenuous to focus only on deficits occurring since Jan 2001. Do only Democratic deficits cause inflation? :)
The proper reason to criticize a president for deficits is that the are extremely likely to be the result of tax and and spending decisions that have the net effect of shifting reauorces from investment to consumption and thereby depressing future growth.
I said "macroeconomic stimulus" - which is the combined effect of the fiscal and monetary stance. As you know, I agree with you that monetary policy ultimately determines inflation. The later mention of deficits is about potential fiscal dominance if the U.S. debt situation really deteriorates.
Given the difficulty in judging how likely a particular bad idea actually to be enacted makes ia comparison quite difficult, probably not worth doing. I'd prefer to just do a one by one analysis. Mine (of Biden retrospectively, not what Harris might do) is at:
https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/p/an-unfair-evaluation-of-bidens-economic
I would also point out that NOT having a Pigou tax on net CO2 emissions, departures from merit based immigration, and a non-zero deficit are enormous compared to some of the other distortions you mention.