W.H. Economic Adviser Bernstein: I Won’t Admit I Got Inflation Wrong Because ‘What I Said Then Was Very Much the Case’

On Friday’s “MSNBC Prime,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein refused to admit he got inflation wrong the same way Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier in the week admitted she got inflation wrong — in part due to her failure to fully understand supply problems — and argued that what he said back in 2021 “was very much the case.” And “I’m not going to re-litigate who was right and who was wrong a year ago.”

After playing a clip of Bernstein downplaying the longevity of inflation in October 2021, host Mehdi Hasan asked, “Do you want to join with Janet Yellen and apologize for getting that analysis wrong?”

Bernstein responded, “No, I mean, what I said then was very much the case. And, in fact, at the time, the Federal Reserve, virtually every economic forecaster, the Congressional Budget Office were all saying what I said there. Look, I think the key question right now is what are we doing to help ease prices at the pump? I’m not going to re-litigate who was right and who was wrong a year ago. I want to talk about what we’re doing now, and the president has articulated three — a three-pronged approach.”

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