There was no magic money tree. It took a while for the effects to spread to the whole of the economy - perhaps because people were in lockdown and limited in their ability to spend money - but throughout the western world people's incomes have been dropping in real inflation-adjusted terms. There's no way that they couldn't; a large chunk of the economy was shut down and producing nothing, so there's just plain less stuff to buy which means people can't possibly be able to continue consuming the same amount. Printing and handing out checks just redistributed where in society the economic pain was felt for a while.
$2000 one time checks are not what is causing inflation. Extended unemployment insurance... I doubt it.
Inflation right now is happening because logistics are messed up. Yeah, turns out that when things get messy then the price of things go up, cuz it's harder to get things done.
It had more to do with the hundreds of billions of loans to rich people to keep companies open. That don't have to be repaid. And went predominantly to fraud.
I really hope the DoJ sets up a task force and starts sending people to jail. We can let out some people who smoked dope if we need more cells.
Ah yes. I suppose you still believe in Powell's story that inflation is transitory. Forget about the money supply or the sudden course correction to hike interest rates faster.
