Harvard Economist Rogoff: I Worry Biden, Fed Will Overcompensate for Earlier ‘Big Mistakes’ on Inflation

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Professor of Economics at Harvard University and former International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Ken Rogoff said that while he thinks the Federal Reserve will ultimately “blink” and not back up its tough talk on inflation, he worries that because both the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve have “made big mistakes” in the past, they’ll make a mistake in the other direction and try to bring inflation down too quickly.

Rogoff stated, “I mean, it’s a very odd mix of having the employment report good and the growth be negative. Everything after the pandemic’s very odd. I think the question about will we have a recession is how easily will they get inflation down. And I’m worried that the Fed, they’re talking tough, I suspect they’ll blink, but I’m worried that, having made some big mistakes, the Biden administration made big mistakes and the Fed made big mistakes, and I’d say a lot of academic economists supported what they were doing and had it wrong, they’re in danger of making a big mistake in the other direction and overshooting and trying to bring it down too quickly.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett