Former presidential candidate Steve Forbes lambasted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the economy Thursday, saying Powell would be “late” to addressing an “unnecessary recession.”
“He’s always late. He was late fighting inflation, now he’s going to be late fighting a recession, an unnecessary recession and back in August he talked at Jackson Hole about we’re not – we’ve learned the lessons of 1970s we must conquer inflation,” Forbes said. “Well, you don’t conquer it by trashing the economy. When in early 1980s was not just the recession conquered inflation, it’s what Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan did after that recession, they stabilized the dollar, better than what they did in the ’70s, they had these great growth measures which the whole world imitated.” (RELATED: ‘Back To Dependence’: Hannity And Kudlow Blast Biden Admin’s Energy Agenda)
Powell said that inflation would be transitory during an August 2021 speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Powell admitted in December 2021 that inflation ended up lasting longer and being worse than he “expected.”
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“Fifty countries cut taxes after we did. So you had a global boom. We boomed, the world boomed. Silicon Valley became bywords for cutting-edge technology instead of stagnant politics,” Forbes continued. “And so you have a situation today where they’re doing just the opposite. It is just so bizarre, so he can go to Capitol Hill, but he has no real credibility because he was cheerleading the spending in 2021.”
Powell praised the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March 2021, Forbes reported, claiming that it prevented the worst of the economic issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Federal Reserve increased interest rates Wednesday, the sixth time the central bank hiked rates at 50 basis points or higher since March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 764.13 points Thursday, an equivalent to 2.25%.
The Consumer Price Index rose 7.1% year-over-year in November, following increases of 7.7% in October, 8.2% in September and 8.3% in August. Some experts, including former Obama administration official Steven Rattner, have said the spending in legislation like the American Rescue Plan President Joe Biden signed into law in March 2021, helped send inflation to levels not seen for decades.
“I’m surprised the stock market’s taken so long to wake up to what the Federal Reserve has been doing for months.” Forbes said.
Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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