Investment Bank Goldman Sachs: Inflation Bigger Threat To Economy Than COVID
There's a very real problem infecting the world and it's spreading at a rapid rate to all ages, genders and tax brackets. This problem wasn't conceived in a lab, won't force you indoors and won't mandate any jabs or useless masking, however it will still impact your life for the worse. The problem is inflation -- the reason gas will soon cost upwards of $5 a gallon and your ground beef is now priced like a filet.
Goldman Sachs, one of the most well-known investment banks in the world, says that inflation will surpass new COVID-19 outbreaks as the biggest threat to economic growth worldwide.
The investment bank released an analysis earlier this week that supports the idea that inflation is the biggest global threat to the economy:
Stronger demand, especially for investment, along with the uptick in inflation expectations due to the pandemic inflation shock, suggest that we are on a long road to higher nominal interest rates relative to the post-GFC world.
Citing a "reduction in fear among the vast majority of the population that is either already vaccinated or has no desire to get vaccinated under any circumstances," the Goldman Sachs analysis sees rising prices as the biggest roadblock to economic recovery:
This means that the biggest risk to the global economy may no longer be a renewed downturn because of fresh virus outbreaks, but may now be higher inflation because of tight goods supplies and excessive wage pressure. Although we expect a significant part of the goods supply squeeze to abate over the next year, at present the stress on supply chains is substantial and inventories in semiconductors, durable goods, and energy markets are very low. In such an environment, even a moderate production outage resulting from COVID outbreaks in China, an energy demand spike related to a cold winter, or other short-term disruptions could have sizable economic effects.
Per a report in The Daily Wire, the consumer price index, a basket of products economists use to track overall changes in price, surged 6.2% from October 2020 to last month, the fastest annual rate since 1990.
Maybe a booster shot will fix it?
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