Media top headlines February 18
In media news today, The Washington Post issues a clarification after saying Clarence Thomas resembles the thinking of ‘White conservatives,’ Ex-New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is declared ineligible to run for governor of Oregon, and liberal journalists lash out at Ilhan Omar.
Steven Rattner, a former Treasury Department official under the Obama administration, is renewing his criticism over the growing U.S. inflation crisis following President Biden's claim that the rising cost of goods was due to supply chain problems.
In a Thursday guest essay for The New York Times, Rattner added to his previous complaints about Biden's handling of the economy as he refuted the latter's "dishonest" claim, arguing that rising inflation was actually tied to shortages caused by increased demand amongst American consumers rather than the inability to get consumer goods from one place to another.
"Supply issues are by no means the root cause of our inflation. Blaming inflation on supply lines is like complaining about your sweater keeping you too warm after you’ve added several logs to the fireplace," Rattner wrote, referencing the comments Biden made during an interview last week with NBC's Lester Holt. "The bulk of our supply problems are the product of an overstimulated economy, not the cause of it."
He added that the country was seeing a classic economic case of "too much money chasing too few goods," leading to higher prices and shortages, given the surge in demand.
He then called on the White House to "be more honest" as it rolled out initiatives to combat shortages and increased prices.
Steven Rattner speaks during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado, U.S., on Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Photographer: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In a separate guest essay for the New York Times last year, Rattner railed against the Biden administration for being "so wrong" on inflation, and argued that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021 was a major contributor to the increasing figures.
"The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March. The bill — almost completely unfunded — sought to counter the effects of the Covid pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment," he wrote. "That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels."
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 19: U.S. President Joe Biden answers questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on January 19, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Rattner appeared on MSNBC days later and argued that Biden's Build Back Better agenda would add to the deficit, despite the administration's claims otherwise, and that he had warned the president that "shoveling an unprecedented amount of spending into an economy already on the road to recovery would mean too much money chasing too few goods."
Fox Business' Megan Henney and Fox News' Cortney O'Brien contributed to this report.
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