The Secretary of Commerce Is A Complete Fucking Idiot

For one thing, aside from drug dealers, almost no one uses cash anymore:*

No," said [Howard] Lutnick [Commerce Secretary ]. "Tariffs do not, do not, do not create inflation! Printing money creates inflation. You have a balanced budget, there can't be inflation. This doesn't mean one product can't be more expensive and one product can't be less expensive. But China, I'll give you an example, China has the highest tariffs in the world. In the world. Everything gets tariffed in China. And they don't have inflation, in fact they have deflation. India, the second highest tariffs in the world, they don't have inflation. So this concept is just people whining and complaining and not being truthful. The fact is, we need to protect America."

Inflation in India is higher than the United States. Tariffs are well documented as an inflation risk, both by businesses passing the cost of the tariffs along to consumers, and by reducing imports and limiting the supply of goods and materials generally, which puts upward pressure on prices if demand remains constant.

This idiot probably thinks we’re still on the gold standard. Or that we should go back to it.

Somebody ask him if egg prices are rising because Congress printed too much money for eggs.

I’ll retire to Bedlam…

*I was in line two days ago waiting for a cashier when the cashier abruptly left his register and took the customer to another one. She wanted to pay in cash, and the first register didn’t have any. My grocery store has several self-service registers that regularly turn into “card only,” I assume due to a (brief) shortage of cash. I’ve yet to see anyone walk away to an attended register in such circumstances. I’m sure it happens, but it’s as rare as snow in Houston. “Printing too much cash”? Even Milton Friedman wasn’t such an idiot.