New York Post: Larry Summers Raises Inflation Concerns as He Blasts Biden's Spending

Article by Lydia Moynihan in New York Post

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said he is skeptical of massive spending increases under Biden and the Federal Reserve – and is now worried about inflation more than ever, according to a report.

“The traditional role of the Fed is to remove the punch bowl before the party gets good, right?” Summers told Axios. “They have announced that their new policy is to remove the punch bowl only after they have clearly seen a number of people staggering around drunk.”

His comments come just days after April’s Consumer Price Index showed prices surged 4.2 percent from last April, making it the largest jump in prices since 2008.

Over the past year the Fed has flooded the markets with money — $120 billion a month. 

In February, Summers penned an op-ed for the Washington Post where he laid out his worries about Biden’s massive spending and said the trillions of dollars Biden wanted to spend could create “inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.”

Summers said now he is even more concerned as Biden unveils more plans to ramp up spending. Summers notes that spending first and taxing later could “add fuel to the [inflationary] fire”

Summers has been a key figure in crafting economic policy for Democrats since the 1990s—in addition to serving as Treasury Secretary, he also served as Chief Economist of the World Bank and head of the National Economic Council under President Obama.

Other democratic economists have also broken rank with Biden. President Obama’s Council on Economic Advisors chief Jason Furman has also been critical of the massive spending — calling Biden’s coronavirus relief package “too .....

To read this article in New Yourk Post in its entirety, click here.