Nobel Prize-Winning Economists Sound Alarm on Trump’s Potential to ‘Reignite’ Inflation

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Critics of President Joe Biden point to increased inflation as a significant issue for voters in the upcoming presidential election — but a group of Nobel Prize-winning economists warned that former President Donald Trump’s policies will only make inflation worse.

In a letter obtained by Axios on Tuesday, 16 economists who have been awarded the Nobel Prize for their work in the field co-signed a letter that not only called Biden’s economic plan “vastly superior” but went as far as saying that Trump’s “fiscally irresponsible budgets” would “reignite” inflation and have a lasting, negative effect on the economy both domestically and abroad. Both Axios and CNN had excerpts from the letter:

We the undersigned are deeply concerned about the risks of a second Trump administration for the US economy. …

The outcome of this election will have economic repercussions for years, and possibly decades, to come. We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the US’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the US’s domestic economy. …

Among the most important determinants of economics success are the rule of law and economic and policy certainty. Donald Trump and the vagaries of his action and policies threaten this stability and the US’s standing in the world.

The economists also wrote:

Many Americans are concerned about inflation, which has come down remarkably fast. There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation, with his fiscally irresponsible budgets.

Axios reported that the message was led by Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel prize for economics in 2001.

While inflation rates have improved recently after peaking at 9 percent in 2022, prices still remain high and many polls report that people are still struggling financially.