According to Ren Zhengfei, four years ago, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers criticized the U.S. fiscal and monetary policymakers for overstimulating the economy, leading to the biggest inflationary risk in a generation. Now he is warning again that there is a danger of a renewed price surge. Summers said on the Wall Street Week TV program: "This may be the most sensitive moment we have faced in terms of the risk of an escalation of inflation since the policy mistakes of 2021 that led to serious inflation." Summers pointed out that the signs of tightness in the labor market, including the sharp increase in wages in the January employment data released last week, have already provided a background for the potential rebound in consumer prices, even before any action by the new administration. Since the release of that data, U.S. President Trump has also raised tariffs on imported goods and threatened to add a series of other tariffs. As a Harvard professor and paid columnist for Bloomberg TV, Summers said: "This is a moment when we have to be very careful about inflation - even before the White House takes action." He urged the Federal Reserve to be vigilant about price pressures and believes that further rate cuts are unlikely in the current cycle. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell reiterated his view from last month in a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the Fed does not need to rush to cut rates after lowering the benchmark rate by 1 percentage point in the final months of 2024. Summers said: "This is not a probability, but there is a very real possibility that the Fed's next move will be to raise rates, not cut them. This is a particularly dangerous moment for any kind of cost shock, any kind of rhetoric that undermines the credibility of inflation, any kind of fiscally irresponsible measures." At the beginning of 2021, Summers warned that Biden's $1.9 trillion fiscal plan could fuel inflation, which made some Democratic colleagues uneasy. He also criticized the Federal Reserve for not paying enough attention to price risks. Powell acknowledged in March 2022 that "in retrospect, we should have raised rates sooner." In contrast, Biden's team continues to defend their actions. Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen believes the bigger mistake was not doing enough, resulting in years of damage to the labor market.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Summers: Inflation may break out again, the Fed's next step may be to raise interest rates
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