Kevin O’Leary on Inflation: You Printed $7 Trillion in 30 Months. What Did You Think Would Happen?
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by John Miltimore
Americans are facing 40-year high inflation. It’s the number one issue on the minds of North Americans, and every day on TV and in newspapers pundits are debating how long it will last and deciding who is to blame.
Most astonishing amid the flurry of news is just how badly the commentary misses. While there is broad agreement that the US is experiencing dangerously high inflation, partisanship and ideology have polluted basic economics.
Progressive politicians say that corporate greed is to blame, an idea that even Democratic economists have dismissed. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has blamed Vladimir Putin. Republicans, on the other hand, have consistently made the case that Joe Biden is the inflation culprit.
All of these explanations are entirely or mostly wrong.
While it’s true that Putin and Biden deserve some blame, there seems to be an unspoken bipartisan consensus to ignore the elephant in the room: The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented money printing.
One person not playing the game is Kevin O’Leary, Canadian entrepreneur and investor. O’Leary explained why Americans are experiencing the highest inflation in generations: The printing presses have gone insane.
O’Leary is talking about the Fed, which has been expanding the money supply for decades, and the speed has picked up in recent years. Nothing, however, has compared to the monetary expansion that occurred during the pandemic, something Fed Chair Jay Powell recently admitted.
Fed data shows that in August 2019 there was $14.9 trillion total in circulation. By January 2022, there was $21.6 trillion.
In other words, more than 30% of dollars in circulation in January 2022 had been created in the previous 30 months.
Up for discussion: What is inflation, and inflation is a silent killer.