The average American family has lost roughly $7,400 thanks to inflation, as rising prices stretch budgets and bankrupt the working class. You’d think, then, that there would be an honest interrogation into the true causes of surging prices. At least as far as the New York Times is concerned, you’d be wrong.
The Times’s inflation coverage includes a “helpful” inflation F.A.Q. supposedly explaining what inflation is and what causes it. Their explanation for what causes inflation has some… noticeable omissions. It reads: “What causes inflation? It can be the result of rising consumer demand. But inflation can also rise and fall based on developments that have little to do with economic conditions, such as limited oil production and supply chain problems.”
Here's how the NY Times explains inflation. Notice anything missing? pic.twitter.com/Ql3ESnoxxW
— Jeremy Horpedahl 🤷♂️ (@jmhorp) March 4, 2023
Utterly ignored in this “explanation” are any mention of government spending or monetary policy.
While supply chain problems and limited oil production can contribute to higher prices, they’re far from the only causes of our inflation surge. At this point, it’s simply undeniable that President Biden’s decision to immediately sign a multi-trillion-dollar, wasteful “stimulus” spending bill poured gasoline on the inflation fire and caused it to surge to new heights. Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimates that federal “stimulus” spending increased the inflation rate by a full three percentage points. Even Vox admitted that Biden’s stimulus increased inflation!
But the huge role government spending played in inflation gets no mention in the New York Times’ inflation F.A.Q. It’s almost like their ideological bias is toward Big Government spending and they don’t want readers to be informed about its downsides…
It’s also almost unbelievable that there is no mention of the Federal Reserve’s policies in the Times explanation of what causes inflation. America’s central bank is literally in charge of the money supply and chose to print trillions of dollars out of thin air during the pandemic to “stimulate” the economy. This inevitably contributed to inflation as more dollars chased the same (or shrinking) amount of goods, bumping prices up. But it, too, gets no mention.
Even the things the Times does bother to mention, like “limited oil production” leading to higher gas prices, are misleading. They don’t explain why oil production has been limited, one major reason is the Biden administration’s anti-energy policies and regulations.
All in all, the New York Times’ inflation coverage misleads far more than it informs.
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