During an interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer on Tuesday, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told CNBC viewers that “stickier inflation” for the economy ahead will be good for workers because it will help push up earnings through “wage inflation.”
President Joe Biden has been hard at work selling the American people on the notion that his economy is strong and people are better off now than when his chief rival, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, was president. But most people are not buying it. Prices are still much higher than they were before the pandemic, and public opinion polls show even Biden supporters disapprove of the economy.
CNBC: "Voters have decided the cure for inflation is NOT Biden" — it's President Trump pic.twitter.com/AgbvFIoXps
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 27, 2024
Biden recently claimed that American inflation is “the lowest in the world.” He also blames high prices on corporate greed or laughs them off as “shrinkflation.” Meanwhile, Biden’s billionaire friend and CEO of New York-based BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told Cramer this week that “we’re going to have higher inflation.”
“If we start really building out our infrastructure in our country, if we start working on digitization and decarbonization, we are gonna create a lot of jobs. And wages are going up. This is why, as you know, I’ve been talking about higher inflation for longer — stickier inflation — and I still believe we’re gonna have higher inflation than most people believe,” Fink said.
5-year inflation expectations have climbed this year pic.twitter.com/NoaeWxL9Jr
— Piker Capital (@PikerCapital) March 29, 2024
In addition to admitting inflation is apt to get worse and stick around for longer, Fink argued that it will cause wages to go up, “and much of that is gonna help those people who are worried.” He said growth in wages has not slowed: “I mean wage inflation is continuing… Food inflation has moderated in the last six to 12 months.”
The Biden administration has long charmed away criticisms of high prices with the refrain that inflation is transitory and prices will eventually come down. Earlier in March, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that she now regrets saying that inflation was transitory in 2021.
“I regret saying it was transitory. It has come down. But I think transitory means a few weeks or months to most people,” Yellen said while speaking with FOX Business Network’s Edward Lawrence.
