Scott Galloway Argues Trump and Putin Created Inflation: ‘Sophomoric Intellectually to Blame Biden’
Scott Galloway, author and clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, discussed takeaways Friday from the third quarter on his tech and business podcast with Kara Swisher, Pivot.
Galloway explained why on the “demand side,” he believes former President Donald Trump is to blame for the inflation in the U.S. right now, but offered a rosy outlook for inflation coming down faster than expected in the next six months or so.
“Anyway, another big story this past quarter, inflation Q3 open with inflation on the rise, but it fell slightly through July and August. Now, who knows? Joe Manchin surprised everyone, the sudden pivot and Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in August and September the Fed raised rates again and now OPEC,” Swisher began, referencing the decision this week by OPEC to cut oil production, which is expected to increase gas prices.
“So I’m not sure where I’m in a soft landing. Can inflation be tamed at all? And if inflation is is too much money, chasing too few goods is the answer. More goods? I don’t know. What do you think about this?” Swisher then asked Galloway.
“Yeah. So on a basic level, inflation is too many dollars facing too few products. And it’s important to remember that the reason we, the two primary drivers of inflation are that one in America there was a global coordinated quantitative easing and spending to create liquidity and ensure we didn’t have an economic crash,” Galloway replied, adding:
And to a certain extent, that’s a victory when the largest economies coordinate and do the same thing and make sure that there isn’t an economic catastrophe. So that’s a win.
Most countries put about 17 to 23% of their GDP to work. Trump put 27%. We overdid it. So there’s too many dollars out there. So if you were going to blame anyone for the demand side, it would be Donald Trump. The only nation that spend more as a percentage of their GDP on stimulus was Singapore.
“And then on the supply side, we’ve had a supply shock courtesy of Vladimir Putin, where he’s come in and interrupted the food supply chain and the energy supply chain. So I think you just got to make sure you got to understand. And when voters go out and are angry or anger or the Republicans try and position Biden as it being his fault,” Galloway argued.
“Inflation in the U.S. is less bad than it is in most places. And it’s just a little bit sophomoric intellectually to blame Biden for inflation right now,” he continued, adding:
And then on the supply side, we have to make big investments because just as nine women can have a baby in a month, you can’t build a semiconductor plan overnight. But my prediction and I’ve said this, I think inflation is going to come down faster than anyone thinks, especially in the US. The dollar is incredibly strong, which takes all of our…
“I did think that until the OPEC thing came in,” cut in Swisher.
“I do think that the incredible gains of the Ukrainian army against the Russians makes the likelihood the conflict might come to an end in the next six months. More likely, the energy markets will perceive that,” Galloway concluded as the conversation continued.
Listen above and click here for the full podcast
