The Price of Inflation, Now and in the Future

Published in The Wall Street Journal.

Your excellent editorial “Biden Has an Inflation Problem” (Aug. 12) points out that average real wages have fallen for seven months in a row. In other words, the Biden inflation has reduced the real wages of workers in every month that he has been in office. This confirms yet again that high inflation is a way of cutting wages by sneaky central-bank means.

This inflation has come as a surprise to the Federal Reserve, as it busily monetizes government debt, but it is no surprise at all. It reflects the most fundamental principle in economics: Nothing is free. You pay for monetizing government debt by taking money from the wage earners and robbing the savers.

Alex J. Pollock

R Street Institute