Business Insider: Larry Summers is Just Getting More 'Worried' About Inflation

Article by Ben Winck in Business Insider

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers reiterated his concerns about rampant inflation on Friday and questioned whether the Federal Reserve and the White House can control price growth as effectively as they claim.

The ink is barely dry on Democrats' $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, but President Joe Biden isn't slowing his roll. The White House is slated to roll out a new spending plan on Wednesday that includes trillions of dollars for infrastructure, climate, and family-care projects. The proposal signals Biden is willing to keep injecting cash into the economy until it's fully recovered.

The scale of pandemic-era spending, and the suggestion it will continue, is cause for concern, Summers said in a Friday interview on Bloomberg TV. Many economists and policy experts have dispelled fears of 1970s-like hyperinflation, but the former Treasury Secretary said he sees few contrasts between that era and today.

"If there are any differences, the differences are such as to make one more concerned now," Summers said.

The famed economist cited the sudden and volatile nature of inflation in the late 1960s in his argument. Price growth stood at around 1% for a few months in 1966, yet it stood as high as 6% for some of 1969.

The idea that inflation can't surge so unexpectedly "is just plain wrong," Summers said.

"It may be that a way will be found to bring it under control," the economist added. "But as I look at $3 trillion of stimulus, $2 trillion of .....

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