“We have inflation at a level we’ve never had before.”
Donald Trump, News Conference, January 7, 2025
Inflation today is at 2.7%. Historically speaking (and-in-every-other way speaking) the rate of inflation that Trump inherits from President Biden is gobsmackingly below “a level we’ve never seen before.” [Note: Whenever Trump uses the phrase “a level we’ve never seen before” he is – in order of precedence- either lying, or unaware/uneducated about the topic, or in a Diet Coke induced trance. Of course, all three a simultaneously possible.]
Without much need for explanation, see the chart below. In the mid-1900s during the First World War the highest inflation rate is at its 100 year record high (20%). Then, along came World War 2 and another series of backbreaking inflation rates. The 1970s-early 1980s brought high inflation due primarily to the Arab Oil Boycott, the Iranian revolution, and “stagflation” (characterized by high inflation, low economic growth, and high unemployment). Since the 1990s, however, inflation has been somewhat tame, and in the 2000s mostly below 2.5% (which is generally the Federal Reserve’s “target rate”).
Trump’s “highest inflation” view of things is as fabricated as anything he’s, well, ever fabricated. He used it successfully though; pounding on that theme on the campaign trail constantly. Polling found that high inflation was among the strongest reasons he succeeded in 2024. In fact, though, from 2010 inflation has been a pussy cat. Yet, at today’s press conference Trump still cannot let go of his upside-down view of inflation, unless he was referring to the historic high of his own rate of dishonesty . . .
I remember clearly 1976-1983 when there really was inflation and gas shortages and high unemployment. It was a tough time to get started as a young adult. My first mortgage then was at 17%, and that was not a bad rate. These days just are not so bad. I a afraid with the incoming administration they will become truly bad.