W.H. Economic Adviser Rouse: Inflation ‘The Consequence of Mounting an Effective Response to the Pandemic’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse stated that inflation “has been the consequence of mounting an effective response to the pandemic.”

Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “I wonder, looking back, were Larry Summers and Joe Manchin right about spending and inflation?”

Rouse answered, “So, I’m not sure what the right is. What we have here is an economy that’s recovering from a pandemic. The downturn was caused by the pandemic, where we had to basically power down our economy until we had the therapeutics and the vaccinations and the shots in the arms.”

Keilar then cut in to ask, “But they warned that the spending levels, which, of course, I understand the White House and you consider very necessary for the situation that the economy and that the pandemic was in, but that it would cause inflation of maybe a higher level than certain people, including at the White House were expecting. Were they right?”

Rouse said, “So, what we’ve seen is that all advanced countries are trying to address inflation, and they have historic levels of inflation. That has been the consequence of mounting an effective response to the pandemic. Because while we supported households and businesses, got shots into arms, which allowed people to start to come out of their homes and regain their lives, our supply chains could not support that demand. So, this is — we are not alone. All advanced countries are addressing…this. So, this is a consequence of having an effective strategy against the pandemic.”

Earlier, she stated that gas prices are higher due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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