Fox News co-host Geraldo Rivera claimed that “inflation is partly a good thing” Wednesday.
“This may sound crazy,” Rivera told the other panelists on ” The Five,” “but talking about good things, inflation is partly a good thing in the sense that it’s forcing employers to pay employees more money. So people are making more money, they can demand better pay, so that inflates the cost, the owner has to pass the price on to the consumer.”
“But the wage gains are being wiped out by inflation,” co-host Jesse Watters said, “so you’re not seeing the benefit of that.” (RELATED: Is Inflation Really Just A High Class Problem?)
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Co-panelist Katie Pavlich had earlier noted that the chair of the federal reserve had said that the inflation problem would only end in 2022. She also observed that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was in charge of the Senate budget committee, and that he supported pouring money into the economy.
“And Bernie Sanders is a guy who said that government breadlines are a good thing,” Pavlich said. “And so, when you believe that that’s a good thing, then clearly, they’re going to argue that what’s happening is a sign of progress.”
“I remember, to Katie’s point,” Watters continued, “how Trump closed in the election. He says ‘Joe Biden and his radical puppeteers want to turn this country into Venezuela.’ What do we have, Geraldo? We have high gas prices, we’ve got high crime, we’ve got corruption, we have empty shelves, political prosecutions, and then I remember how Joe Biden closed his campaign. What did he say? He says, ‘I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus.’ Well, what did he do? There’s been more people that died from COVID-19 under Joe Biden than under Trump, and the economic recovery is sputtering.”
Inflation in the U.S. rose to 5.4% from September 2020 to September 2021. Shortages have ensued, with schools in Alabama suffering shortages of lunch food.