Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed late-night host Stephen Colbert that Americans are at least partially to blame for the inflation crisis crushing the middle class.
Perhaps pinning all the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine wasn’t panning out the way the White House thought it would. Now Yellen is claiming that American “splurging” is driving up prices.
“Can you explain how inflation got so high?”Colbert asked. “Because two years ago everything seemed fine, even in 2021 you and other members of the administration believed that inflation was a small risk. What happened, simply and clearly?”
Don’t blame the Biden Admin printing trillions of dollars: @SecYellen tells @StephenAtHome the real reason inflation is out of control is because Americans are “splurging” on goods; “and, remember, Russia has conducted a brutal war against Ukraine” pic.twitter.com/d0xbhA7sbH
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 1, 2022
“So we had a rapid recovery from the pandemic, when President Biden was elected, unemployment was quite high. It was close to seven percent,” Yellen explained. “So normally you wouldn’t expect, just because you have a rapid recovery, for inflation to rise very much if at all.”
“But it turns out the pandemic had very special impacts on the economy,” she continued. “Remember everybody stopped spending on services, they were in their homes for a year or more. They wanted to buy grills and office furniture, they were working from home. They suddenly started splurging on goods, buying technology- we’re suddenly working through technology.”
“And bottlenecks started developing where supply in important sectors of the economy just couldn’t keep up with demand.”
Oh, but the Putin narrative hasn’t completely died.
“And remember, Russia has conducted a brutal war against Ukraine and that caused gas prices to spike, it’s caused food prices to spike, it’s creating hardship all over the world and we’re really trying to address those strains as well,” she concluded.
Needless to say, Twitter users were not happy to be accused of fueling inflation by simply purchasing the bare minimum needed to get by during a global pandemic:
“Milk and meat would be cheaper if people would just stop buying fancy PCs” -expert
— Razor (@hale_razor) December 1, 2022
I have volunteered at a local food bank for several years. We cannot even meet demand right now. We are having to close our doors early and have had to put out the call for more volunteers. We cannot handle the volume of all those food bank “splurgers” right now. It’s sad.
— Kathleen (@Calibamawife) December 1, 2022
Criminal.
What about the $700k she got to speak to citadel??
You gonna bring that up Stephen?
— Peruvian Bull (@peruvian_bull) December 1, 2022
WE’RE SPLURGING
ON FOOD, SHELTER AND ENERGY
well, two out of three, anyway
on a good day
— Brian Guy (@ItsThatBriGuy) December 1, 2022
But it’s transitory!
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) December 1, 2022
Yeah, my mom splurged so much on eggs last week that she had to put that gallon of OJ back.
— Bleu Cheque (@VERBAL_CHANCLA) December 1, 2022
Ohh now I get it. It’s all my fault!!!!
— Ryan (@realryanmedo) December 1, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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