Consumer Spending Is Not The Cause of the Current Inflation
Commentary
In the United States, consumer spending is increasing not from a rise in income but from a rise in consumer debt. Last November, consumer spending financed by new debt rose at an annual rate of 7.1 percent, which exceeds the 4.8 percent annual growth in average hourly earnings for the month.
With wage increases lagging inflation, consumers’ real incomes are falling. If not the Federal Reserve Board and chairman, the Federal Reserve’s staff economists should know that falling real incomes are an unlikely cause of demand inflation. It’s a sign of stress, not exuberance, that consumers are having to go deeper into debt in order to make ends meet….