Treasury secretary concedes she was wrong on 'path that inflation would take'

[TheProle]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted Tuesday that she had failed to anticipate how long high inflation would continue to plague American consumers as the Biden administration works to contain a mounting political liability.

"I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take," Yellen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" when asked about her comments from 2021 that inflation posed only a "small risk."

The admission was the latest indication that the administration's expectations of a normalizing economy were thrown into disarray by the continuing pandemic and the war in Europe.

"As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn't -- at the time -- didn't fully understand, but we recognize that now," she said.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/31/politics/treasury-secretary-janet-yellen-inflation-cnntv/index.html

[cilla4progress]

1. Good on her for admitting mistake!

I have utter confidence in this team.

[Mysterian]

22. Excellent observation

A truly competent and confident leader will admit to mistakes honestly.

[cstanleytech]

18. Well part of the cause is the increase in wages as the corporations want to claw that money back

so they are hiking prices.
Solution to that practice in my opinion is link a corporations taxes to how many employees are not earning over 300% of the federal poverty level as set by the GAO without any input from Congress.
The more employees they have that earn below 300% the higher their taxes and temporary and contract workers count if the company uses such services for more than 45 days of the year to fill a job within the company.
I think if that was enacted it would discourage such practices by the corporations as it would not be profitable to force more of their employees into poverty anymore.

[BootinUp]

3. this is how adults deal with challenges

re-evaluate, and use that information to make better decisions.

[FalloutShelter]

4. Why does the MSM not ask about

the GOP spiking the child tax credit, which would have helped to ease the sting of inflation.... which is GLOBAL?
8.1 last month in the EU.

Asking for a friend.

[IronLionZion]

5. Mistakes were made

We all make mistakes, now let's work on fixing it despite GOP obstruction

[DENVERPOPS]

6. My thinking is

that there is little that can be done, if the "United Corporations of America" all raise their prices significantly, creating exorbitant record profits and then blame the "inflation" on Biden and the U.S. Government. This includes the oil and gas corporations as well as the Natural Gas and Electrical Utilities............

The Republicans want/need to make the Dems look bad in any way they can to help the Republican politicians win in the next elections. And they will stop at nothing. Of course the Republican owned Media will aid and assist by cooperating and wrongly blaming it on Biden's Administration instead of publicizing the fact that it is the Corporations that are willfully creating this inflation....

The Republican's are hell bent on making life miserable for especially the middle and lower classes. The Republicans/Corporations are crushing all the people at the gas pumps, the grocery store, and their natural gas and electrical bills.

I am sickened that Secretary Janet Yellen and the Democrats are saying "WE failed to anticipate," rather than screaming from the roof tops the REAL REASON for the inflation.......

The merger of Corporations and Government has been 99% completed over the last 40+ years. The Republican Politicians/Corporations are at the threshold and will put their program over the top in the 2022 & 2024 elections unless we get out the vote. People are talking about the 2024 election......Hell, if the Republicans take the 2022 elections, by hook or by crook, and they get the house and senate, the outcome of the 2024 election is in the bag..............

During the debates, Hillary said: "There is a giant right wing conspiracy"........And many Dems just laughed at her.
They sure as hell shouldn't be saying anything now.................

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. How could Yellen have anticipated the potential scope of US corporate price gouging?

As well as the impact of the Ukraine war?

[Permanut]

8. Secretary Yellen..

made the mistake of assuming there is a limit to the grift, greed and gouging that the big corporations would engage in. There is no limit.

[machoneman]

9. O.K. but she just gave the R's a huge anti-Biden talking point!

Without a plan launched at the same time to combat inflation we look lost. Hey, how about nailing the oil/gas industry with sanctions? Or, every family gets a $500 gas credit?

This one IS going to hurt us big time.

[chowder66]

11. While that's true, they make up talking points out of thin air.

It doesn't help but I appreciate the candor.

[JI7]

25. She said it in 2021 . Russia attacked Ukraine 2022 which is

contributing to many of these problems.

[SWBTATTReg]

10. Yellen needs to dig into her past and remember just how hard it was to eliminate Inflation

back in the 80s, etc. It's not an easy animal to ID and target, being that so many things come into play when it comes to all of the factors that cause Inflation. I daresay that there are even different kinds of inflation too, systemic inflation, supply inflation, demand inflation, etc.

[The Mouth]

17. Truth. But all of them will get the party in power un-elected

The voters don't care whose fault it is; we lost a good man, Jimmy Carter, and got the most evil dolt ever to rule use because what was a comfortable salary or pension in 1974 (yes Ford was president when it started) was starvation income in 1980. Carter's fault? Not really....

[867-5309.]

12. Kudos for being adult and direct

Hopefully that impresses voters.

[TheProle]

15. Agreed

As someone stated upthread, the mark of a successful admin is adaptability.

[edhopper]

13. Russia had not invaded Ukraine in 2021

which is largely the cause of energy prices. And she did not anticipate Corporate greed.

[Marthe48]

14. I think a lot of the inflation and bottlenecks are on purpose

the enemies of the U.S., whether they live elsewhere, or are citizens intent on sabotaging our country, are willing to use anything at hand as a weapon to bring down the country. Why they are willing to kill the goose that lays golden eggs for them, I don't know, but they need to be stopped.

[rockfordfile]

19. Didn't know that un-American republican oil companies would price gouge?

[dalton99a]

21. Failed to anticipate the insatiable corporate greed and Putin's idiot war

[MichMan]

23. Hopefully her failure to take it seriously won't cost us the midterms

[malthaussen]

24. No kidding.

Those of us who were sitting in the peanut gallery screaming "You're out of your fucking mind!" are now vindicated. Hoo-rah.

But let's face it, there was no way out of the problems the pandemic caused without some sort of reverberation in the economy. It's a worldwide problem, because it was a worldwide pandemic. What pissed me off was the bland assurances that things would not get too bad. A realistic admission that we were in for some interesting times would have been more honest, IMO. Unless she really thought there would be no inflation blowback, in which case I am appalled.

-- Mal