To bring down the inflation rate from the highest levels in 41 years, the federal government will have to reverse two of its proximate causes: excessive government spending and loose monetary policy.
Today’s inflation crisis party has its roots in the coronavirus pandemic, which created supply chain blockages, manufacturing stops and starts, and wildly volatile changes in consumer demand, all of which contributed to higher prices through the supply side. At the same time as governments imposed shutdowns in the early days of the pandemic, the federal government massively ramped up spending, and the Federal Reserve aggressively expanded the monetary supply and continued to do so through 2021.