During an interview with CBS’s “The Takeout” podcast released on Friday, Biden Senior Adviser Gene Sperling stated that while some economists question whether the White House’s narrative on shrinkflation is accurate, “I think Joe Biden feels like he knows what side he’s on.” And “one thing Joe Biden has learned a bit, is it’s not sometimes just listening to the real conservative economists, but just following his gut instinct” like he did with the American Rescue Plan.
Sperling said, [relevant remarks begin around 23:35] “He’s not happy, whether you call it price gouging or greed, he’s just not afraid to make that argument. And, of course, some economists will come and do — make claims, are you sure, in this case, somebody’s abusing their pricing power? But I think Joe Biden feels like he knows what side he’s on. He wants to be a pressure point, whether it’s policy-wise, through his FTC and antitrust or consumer protection or through his own words to say, prices are coming down, your inputs are coming down, this is not a time that your goal should be record profits that have never been seen while families are going through the grocery line, paying more.”
He added that “one thing Joe Biden has learned a bit, is it’s not sometimes just listening to the real conservative economists, but just following his gut instinct. His gut instinct was the American Rescue Plan would lead to a resilient economy because he was empowering working families. … He was right, a lot of traditional economists were wrong.”
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