Clay Clark warns public of possible weaponization of US monetary system

02/16/2022 / By Nolan Barton

“Thrive Time Show” host Clay Clark warned the public about the possible weaponization of U.S. monetary system. A snippet of his program discussed the astronomical rise of inflation last year, culminating with the biggest annual inflation hike in four decades.

“Historically speaking, the final thing that happens before a country falls is you see intentional inflation. What does that mean? It’s where the government weaponizes the monetary system,” explained Clark.

He related that in Germany, the prices doubled every 3.7 days in 1923 because the inflation rate was 29,500 percent at the time. In Nicaragua, the highest monthly inflation was 120 percent as prices doubled every 16 days in 1980. In Yugoslavia, prices doubled every 1.4 days in the 1990s as inflation rate hit an absurd 313 million percent. In Zimbabwe, the inflation hit a record 79.6 billion percent in 2008 as prices doubled every 24.7 hours. And the latest, Venezuela’s monthly inflation hit 929,790 percent in 2018.

It may not happen in the U.S., but inflation is real and already being felt by Americans.

Polls show the public’s rating of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy is at a record low. His overall approval rating has plummeted. Forty-five percent of Americans say inflation has put a strain on household finances.

In December last year, a Fox Business poll showed that when it comes to rising prices, more than twice as many think the Biden administration’s actions are hurting rather than helping – 47 percent think they are hurting and only 22 percent think they are helping.

About 46 percent of poll participants also think Biden’s proposed social spending plan would push inflation higher, while 21 percent think it would help lower inflation.

That same survey revealed that more than eight in 10 Americans are extremely or very concerned about inflation. Also, about four in 10 respondents say inflation is the biggest issue facing the economy – that’s more than double the number that answered government spending or income inequality.

Biggest inflation increase in four decades

The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) increased by seven percent throughout 2021, marking the worst annual inflation in the country since 1982 and diminishing the purchasing power of American money.

The CPI also climbed 0.6 percent in January from December last year. Compared with January of last year, consumer prices in the first month of 2022 are up 7.5 percent. Those numbers exceeded projections by economists, who expected prices to rise 0.4 percent on a monthly basis and 7.2 percent above the prices a year ago.

The 7.5 percent jump in January represents the biggest year-over-year increase since February 1982, which was 7.6 percent.

Inflation started to accelerate in March 2021 following years of coming in below the Federal Reserve’s two percent target.

The Fed had decided to keep interest rates low although the economy was recovering at a faster than expected rate. The Biden administration also pushed through billions of dollars of deficit spending in the American Rescue Plan. Those two factors combined to push prices up as they fueled demand for goods and services faster than supplies could expand. (Related: The Federal Reserve hides price inflation, but why?)

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell initially claimed that inflation was due to “transitory” factors. Fed officials predicted that inflation would fall in the latter half of 2021, thinking that supply chains would swiftly untangle and a rebalancing of consumer demand from goods to services would relieve pricing pressure. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, on the other hand, continued to press for even more spending.

“Inflation results from too much money chasing too few goods. So if [the] government is spending more money, that’s more money chasing too few goods,” said economist David Henderson.

Late last year, Fed officials dropped the word “transitory” from their vocabulary and began signaling that they would raise interest rates this year.