Why Is U.S. Inflation Higher than in Other Countries?
Inflation in the US in the last 4 years has been a hardship. So I ask, how does US inflation compare to the rest of the world, and why are we seeing it? There’s no full answer here but some insights….
Takeaway:
The next time you blame Trump’s first presidency for inflation, pause first, because Trump signing the CARES Act may have saved us from something worse.
The next time you blame Biden for inflation, pause first, because it was Trump and a pandemic that caused it.
Ugh.
My Reasoning:
TradingEconomics tells us that the US saw a much higher inflation rate than Japan and China. The EU saw inflation similar to the US, though the start was delayed by about a year.
(I picked these countries/groups in my analysis because they are the 4 largest economies in the world)
This article from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco “blames” the 2020 CARES Act of 2020 (signed by Trump) but is quick to say, “However, without these spending measures, the economy might have tipped into outright deflation and slower economic growth, the consequences of which would have been harder to manage.”
(More specifically, they believe that about 1/2 of the recent inflation was caused by Americans’ increased disposable income from the CARES Act. They didn’t comment on it but I believe they would pin the other 1/2 on the pandemic itself)
