Jen Psaki Defends Rising Prices: ‘Good Thing’ Because it Means ‘More People are Buying Goods’

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the idea of economic fragility as a “high-class problem” in a Friday appearance on CNN, saying it meant “more people” were buying goods.

“I get the larger point that when we’re talking about economics, we’re coming out of recession,” host Jake Tapper noted in an evening interview with Psaki. “But doesn’t it seem tone deaf to say that rising prices and empty grocery store shelves are high class problems? Isn’t that a bit dismissive?”

He was speaking in reference to a Twitter comment by Jason Furman, a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “Most of the economic problems we’re facing (inflation, supply chains, etc.) are high class problems,” Furman wrote. “We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10 percent. We would instead have a much worse problem.”

White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain quickly expressed his agreement, retweeting the message and writing “This,” along with images of two fingers pointing at it.

“Well, that’s not exactly what the tweet said, nor the retweet of the original tweet, which is what we’re talking about here,” Psaki said in response to Tapper. “The fact is the unemployment rate is about half what it was a year ago. So a year ago, people were in their homes. Ten percent of people were unemployed. Gas prices were low because nobody was driving. People weren’t buying goods because they didn’t have jobs.

“Now more people have jobs,” Psaki said. “More people are buying goods. That’s increasing the demand. That’s a good thing. At the same time, we also know that the supply is low because we’re coming out of the pandemic and because a bunch of manufacturing sectors across the world have shut down because ports haven’t been functioning as they should be. These are all things we’re working through.”

Watch above via CNN.