Sure enough, dumping trillions of dollars on a U.S. economy restrained by Covid-19 policies has reignited inflation—the most pernicious tax of all. It seems we’re on our way to 1970s double-digit inflation.
But the implications of the return of inflation and the higher interest rates needed to control it are greater than just how it affects our pocketbooks. In 1979, the national debt was $827 billion, or 32 percent of GDP. And the baby boomers were employed and paying into Social Security and Medicare.
Today, by contrast, the national debt is $30 trillion, or 125 percent of GDP, and the Baby Boomers are retiring and becoming recipients of our entitlements system. Might a return of inflation and higher interest rates tip our precarious fiscal house over the cliff?
Economist Brian Riedl has made a specialty of grappling with such dismal economic realities as a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, before that he was Chief Economist to Senator Rob Portman.
Please join the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) on April 8 as we host Brian Riedl for a virtual policy briefing on “Spending, Inflation and the Coming Debt Disaster.”
Riedl’s writing and research have been featured in, among others, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review; he is a frequent guest on NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, and C-SPAN.
Riedl holds a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.
Friday, April 8, 2022
11:00 AM CENTRAL
For additional information or questions please contact
Addie Crimmins at addie@ipi.org or 512.787.8102