I Keep Hoping Larry Summers Is Wrong. What if He's Not?
About this episode
Klein talks with economist Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary who spent a year warning that inflation was not transitory — and was largely proven right. Summers argues the American Rescue Plan overheated the economy, that wage growth above 6 percent made a soft landing unlikely even before new supply shocks, and that Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's lockdowns have made things worse. He explains inflation expectations and why the Fed must raise rates to 4–5 percent even at the risk of recession, dismisses corporate greed as a cause of inflation, and discusses what government can do about supply — from immigration to place-based policy — over the longer term.