Corporate Media Is LYING To You About Inflation: Professor Wolff

This men is full of ideology and nothing factual.

I can't thumbs down this nutjob enough

If prices are just set by decisions of employers and they do this just to make money and for no other reason then why are they doing it now. Why not 2 years ago or 5 years ago. This explains nothing.

Time for the corporate bootlicking brigade to find fault with everything this guy says. I mean clearly the way we've been doing things the past few decades have been working so well. We clearly need to shut up, load our trucks, serve our customers and shut up. The Ruling Class has this all under control.

Patronizing, condescending attitude and a facile, univarient argument. Imagine supporting rationing and price controls without criticizing the mismanagement that precipitated problems. He think Nixon was a hyper/conservative Republican, the guy whose policies practically mirrored JKF’s and presided over the first or second largest expansion of the federal government and bureaucratic state, including the EPA. But, half as good as a broken clock, he is right about one thing, Russia is scapegoat and their entire economy is smaller than the economy of just Texas.

This "professor" appears to be avoiding the elephant in the room: the shortage of workers, requiring employers to pay more for qualified labor, combined with the drive to increase minimum wages across the board. These two issues can only have one result as employers/companies pass these increases on to the consumer in order to maintain their profit margins. Increases in minimum wages have ripple effects across all wage levels (except maybe for those c-suite types) because they put upward pressure on the prices of goods and services. Ultimately this is a self-defeating, destructive cycle. And let's not forget the pandemic caused a lot of people to retire early or quit their unfulfilling jobs. So while the unemployment rate may appear low there is a real shortage of experienced and skilled labor right now. In any event, people don't start businesses for charity. This genius should be returned under the rock or cave from whence he came.

Nice storyteller but not much of an analyst

This was a weird way to end a segment. Feels rushed and it didn't feel like enough respect was given to this claim. Don't make those mistakes, give the right amount of time, do it right. This was an interesting and likely valid assertion and more time should have been allotted.

why is he here?

This clown seems to have forgotten the triiiilions of dollars the government pumped into the system, totally diluting the worth of the dollar. Producers raise the price of goods when the dollar is worth less, so they are compensated fairly. If the dollar in your pocket is worth half as much as it was yesterday, well then you get charged twice as much for the goods that your trying yo buy. He seems to have forgotten basic economics.. And last I heard, ONLY the federal government can print money…..

Plus, this man cannot be given a platform after being completely decimated in a debate by a gamer; Destiny🥴

Complex issues causing inflation. No. Professor Wolff says "The employer raising prices. Primary cause of inflation." Business owners/employers respond to their supply costs. Products. Wages. Benefits. Shortages. Riots. Pandemics. Complex issue that has multiple sources of the problem.

Wolff knows best

His supply chain explanation is detached from reality. Covid and Russia really messed up the chain. There aren't many alternative suppliers in some industries. He is so aggravating

This guy hasn’t seen the inside of a company for a few decades

Is this professor a reflection of current Harvard quality?

I'm no fan of Wolff, I find him pompous and often misguided, but on occasion he makes a salient point.

This guy is a clown. I have seen some of his other views.

Wolff is a Marxist buffoon. Employers didn’t magically change in the past year or two. Employers always want to raise prices but more importantly they want to maximize profitability. If you raise prices too high, you begin to diminish profitability.

There is ultimately no price until a transaction takes place. Employers do not decide what the price of something is. The consumer and employer decide on the price at the moment the transaction takes place. Supply, demand, competition, and subjective value determine what each side finds mutually agreeable.

Employers didn’t suddenly become extra greedy. There’s been a lot of monetary inflation since the pandemic started and when combined with shortages and war, prices will go up.

As consumers get maxed out, the rate in which prices has been going up has to slow down because fewer people can afford it. Profit margins will start crashing as inflation increases. Employers won’t become less greedy. They simply respond to market conditions.

The disclaimer should include that Prof Wolff is a Marxian economist so his views are skewed towards one way of thinking.

A more mainstream economist would look at the economy as a whole instead of a single aspect of it. For inflation the which is the rise in prices and labor one needs to ask where the excess money is coming from. Does a business have the ability to print money? Does a bank? Do consumers create money to spend?

Money is created by the government through spending and through the Federal Bank by loaning out money. When interest rates are low more people borrow money from the Fed increasing the supply of money which leads to an increase in prices. When the Federal government spends money it goes into the economy to people and businesses for them to spend, if the Federal government spends more money now there is more money in the system for people to spend which increases prices.

While businesses are in it for profits if they raise their prices beyond what the market can handle (the amount of money people have to spend) then they will go out of business. If McDonald's raises hamburger prices to $1 million unless people have the money to spend on that hamburger there is no inflation. If the government gives people the money to spend then you have inflation.