Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden's Chief Economist, faced difficulties explaining money's workings in a documentary or Finding The Money,' despite his role.

He stumbled through concepts, highlighting the confusion around government money printing and borrowing

Bernstein, who is head of the US Council of Economic Advisers, is not formally trained in economics and appeared bewildered in the clip

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[–] moujikman@hexbear.net 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Inflation is governed by the supply of money. Monetary Policy controls how much money is in circulation and managed by the central bank. Fiscal Policy controls selling bonds to the public to make up for finance budget deficits without increasing inflation, and is managed by the government.

So the government borrows (e.g. sells bonds to the public) to raise money without increasing inflation.

[–] ElGosso@hexbear.net 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This is one reason for it, but there are other potential causes - for example, supply shocks in critical goods can lead to what's called a wage-price spiral where workers demand more pay in response to rising prices, which increases demand because they have more money to spend, causing sellers to raise prices in response.

[–] Self_Sealing_Stem_Bolt@hexbear.net 15 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There has never been a real world example of a wage price spiral tho. It's a boogeyman invented by bougie economists to keep the working class in line (accepting of low wages)

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2022/11/20/the-wage-price-spiral-refuted/

[–] moujikman@hexbear.net 7 points 6 months ago

100%, it can get even crazier too, if people think there is inflation then it causes inflation. Macro-economics isn't real and its 80% in peoples heads, 20% material conditions.