Kerby Anderson
Why do we still have lingering inflation? President Biden took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to explain and defend his economic record. He claimed that “as supply chains continue to unsnarl, company profit margins fall from historically high levels, and rents continue to moderate, inflation should decline further, creating more breathing room for working families.”
The president appears to believe that rising prices create inflation. Instead, the reverse is true. Dollar depreciation is why prices are rising. Alexander William Salter explains that and evaluates the three parts of the president’s explanation.
First, the president argued that supply chains are causing inflation. That might have been partially true during the lockdowns and the supply chain bottlenecks. But what goes up must come down. The COVID-induced bottlenecks have largely passed, but prices are still high.
Next, the president blames corporate profits. That he focuses on what has become known as “greedflation” is not surprising. Blaming the rich and corporations is a frequent mantra for Democrats during an election year. Mr. Salter points to research by economics professor Josh Hendrickson that shows reduced profit margins. That is just the opposite of what the president argues.
What about the president’s comments about rent? Rent is an important part of consumer spending. But from 2020 to 2022, rent rarely rose faster than inflation. You would expect it to be rising faster if it was pulling inflation up.
These three issues are not the major factor for inflation. The increased money supply is the reason. Both the monetary base and the money supply rose dramatically in the last few years. Also, the government ran massive deficits during those years. That’s why we still have inflation today.

Kerby Anderson
The Pottery Barn rule is an expression that was used by Colin Powell when cautioning President Bush about invading Iraq. He said, “You break it, you own it.” Of course, the “you break it, you own it” rule has been used to warn others about a political action they may later come to regret.
Several commentators have proposed a corollary expression: “You chant it, you own it.” Bring a tape recorder to any protest or even to a parade. You will probably hear lots of extreme statements and chants. This has especially been true of the many environmental protests, along with the many race protests after the death of George Floyd.
In the past, we have been told to ignore the shouting and hyperbole. Protestors may call for us to “defund the police,” but they didn’t really mean that governments were supposed to defund the police. Then we saw certain cities and states do just that.
Environmental activists chant: “No more coal, no more oil, keep your carbon in the soil.” But we were told they really didn’t mean we should decarbonize the country. Then we found out they were serious.
Last month was Pride Month. The pride parade marchers in New York City chanted: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children.” News commentators tried to assure us that “it’s all just words” and that such chants have been used for years in pride parades.
 Frankly, that is a very poor excuse. If you want people to take you seriously, then don’t say things you don’t mean. I can’t imagine a news commentator brushing off chants and slogans used at an alt-right event. But we are supposed to ignore all the provocative things said by leftist groups.
I have a better suggestion: “If you chant it, you own it.”