New York Times columnist says he has 'high tolerance' for inflation in 'white-hot economy'

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Holiday shopping season kicks off amid rising inflation and omicron variant woes

FOX Business correspondent Hillary Vaughn has the latest on 'Special Report' as eager shoppers brave long lines for Black Friday specials despite rising prices and new COVID fears.

The media continues to downplay mass inflation in today’s economy, including New York Times columnist David Brooks, who encouraged a "white-hot economy" and said he has a "high tolerance" for inflation.

"I want a white-hot economy," he said. "I want a white-hot economy that will raise wages at the bottom, which is happening, that will bring people back into the labor force, which is happening, which is spreading wealth around the country and not concentrating in a few cities."

Brooks' push for a hyperactive economy is due to his recognition of society "coming apart" in recent years, he said, in areas like income inequality and labor. But the consequence of these pressures is what’s causing inflation to surface.

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"Since we can’t really fine-tune an economy, we’re probably overheating and we’re getting inflation," he said. 

Post-pandemic inflation, he said, is less of a threat than Jimmy Carter’s inflation of the 1970s which he said "builds on itself."

"I have a high tolerance for inflation in this kind of economy because I think we need it as a society to heal," he said. "But if it turns out to be accelerating 1970s inflation, that becomes its own monster. And I don’t think we know. And I’ve read a million economists on the subject, and believe me, they don’t know."

MSNBC COLUMNIST CLAIMS CURRENT INFLATION CRISIS IS ACTUALLY A 'GOOD THING'

This is not the first time a media pundit has lessened the crisis of higher prices as the holiday season rolls in. MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle claimed in an interview with "Sunday Today" host Willie Geist earlier this month that Americans "on average" can afford the higher prices that come with inflation, earning her the nickname "Stephanie Antoinette" from her critics.

"The dirty little secret here, Willie, while nobody likes to pay more, on average, we have the money to do so," she said on NBC. "Household savings hit a record high over the pandemic, we didn't really have anywhere to go out and spend."

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Fox News’ Cortney O’Brien contributed to this report.