But my point in the greedflation piece was twofold:

* Greed is a constant in the economy, not a variable, and it doesn’t explain why inflation was so much higher in 2022 than in 2019.

* Price controls and rationing are a reasonable response to certain kinds of supply disruptions associated with war or natural disaster, but if you use them to address run-of-the-mill excess of demand you end up with shortages.

Sirota’s new piece completely ignores the text of what I actually wrote, and instead goes to town on the idea that a large share of the increase in prices is accounted for by an increase in profits. This supposedly proves that I am part of a cabal of media liars whose “inflation myth crushed the working class.”

This is nonsense.

The whole point is that overstimulating the economy generates price increases and windfall profits, which is why ideally you wouldn’t overstimulate the economy.

[You especially don’t stoke demand in an economy beset by supply-chain crises if you want to avoid high inflation and “profiteering”. That’s not an “ideally,” that should be Econ 101. At that moment, the correct policy direction would have been supply-side to rebuild production to meet increased demand. That *still* would be the proper response to supply-chain-involved inflation. Instead, progressives in the Biden administration — including Biden himself — refused to consider it and punted the mess to the Fed, where their only tool is monetary tightening. — Ed]