Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday admitted that inflation levels were already high before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, contradicting the Biden administration’s insistence that skyrocketing price increases are largely due to Moscow’s “special military operation” in the eastern European country.
Powell made the admission during a Senate Banking Committee hearing after Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) questioned the Fed chairman over whether or not he believed Ukraine is the “primary driver of inflation in America.”
“I realize there are a number of factors that play a role in the historic inflation that we’re experiencing—supply chain disruptions, regulations that constrain supply, we’ve got rising inflation expectations and excessive fiscal spending, but the problem hasn’t sprung out of nowhere,” Hagerty said….