what he should probably do is focus like a laser on something like supply chain thing, which is actually a more concrete logistical problem which would help with inflation and also look like he s doing something. but you know, there was this amazing piece that nbc reported today where joe biden is basically like eeyore. and karen, as americans drive back from the holiday weekend today, the national average price for a gallon of gas, $4.62. that s up 44 cents from a month ago, up $1.57 from last year at this time. take a look at this sticker of biden on a gas pump in rural pennsylvania over the weekend. shot by one of our senior producers. what does it say, i did that? pointing to the gas prices. that s in swing state pennsylvania. you heard catherine rampell talk about earlier there are things he could do, but they might be
worse. so it s like one thing after another. there was too much optimism last year. everything had to go right. not everything went right. and here s where we are. catherine, before you go, i want to ask, we heard a lot of sound and blame and finger pointing from the white house about corporations being greedy. that s the reason prices are going up. you know, corporations are always greedy. it s called profit maximizing. the question we want to ask is why have they been able to act on that greed today when they weren t two years ago when inflation was very low, when profits were falling inthe answer has to do with supply and demand. and i just think it is at best a distraction and irrelevant sort of demagoguery claim to talk about corporate greed. at worst, i fear it is encouraging democrats to not pursue the kinds of actions i was talking about that would be helpful, and potentially pursue ones that could be actively
inflation. a year ago, he warned the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan would be a problem. he said at the time, while there are enormous uncertainties, there s a chance macro economic stimulus on a scale closer to world war i ilevels will set off inflationary pressures of the kind we have not seen in a generation. given the commitment the fed has made, the dismissal of even the possibility of inflation and the difficulty of tax increases or spending cuts, there is a risk of inflation expectations rising sharply. there are other issues including the supply chain problem because of the pandemic and the pandemic itself. but why was the white house in such denial, so refusing to listen to what larry summers was saying? it wasn t just the white house, to be fair. most economists disagreed with larry summers at the time. the fed s projections, for example, for what inflation was going to look like, were in retrospect much too optimistic. and major forecasters from wall street, et cetera.
transition from recovery to stable steady growth and bring down inflation. the president laying out a three-part plan of giving the fed the space to act, finding ways to lower prices, boost production, and address supply chain problems. and reducing the deficit. but the biden administration under intense scrutiny on whether it did too little too late to proactively tackle inflation. last summer, the president predicted that inflation would be a temporary problem. by late november, fed chairman powell acknowledging that inflation is not transitory. it s probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clorely what we mean. trying to reassure the public the central bank is sympathetic to u.s. consumers concerns. we understand completely what they re going through. now the biden administration signaling there is light at the end of the tunnel. russia s war on ukraine disabled not only gas prices and food prices but also disrupted supply chains. we didn t foresee
there have been unexpected challenges which have disrupted the natural getting us back to equilibrium, but we re optimistic. forecasters expect over the coming months, inflation will ease. so those predictions from last year that inflation might be temporary or transitory, we are seeing that sort of come back to haunt the biden white house now, and brian deese, biden s top economic adviser, was asked about that at the white house briefing just this afternoon. and he said that the economic recovery has been uncertain and unexpe unexpected, so what we re seeing is the white house wary of trying to play the prediction game and also trying to inject optimism into the conversation. that s of course a very tough juggling act. m.j. lee, thank you so much. let s get to richard quest, the host of quest means business. this push by the white house comes as americans views of the economy remain deeply pessimistic according to a new gallup poll released today. only 14% of american adults