The Russian war against Ukraine is also important.

"Trump was constantly demanding Powell push interest rates even lower." - It's worth comparing to Turkey, where the President has much stronger ability to pressure the central bank chair to lower interest rates than in the USA, and has been doing so, and the result is that inflation in Turkey is currently 160% per year.

I don't think this really answers the question - it explains that also previous policies are (also) to blame for current inflation rate, but it doesn't answer the thing I see as the main question: "I started hearing people around me blaming Biden for this, and saying Trump could do better than this." Would Trump make moves that lead to lower inflation rate than currently?

@ZizyArcher How does explaining that inflation was caused by actions and delays of actions by previous administrations and not Biden not answer the question if Biden caused inflation or not? When you consider that some of the actions I am referring to took place in the Trump administration it speaks to the issues at hand. If the inflation in question is not the fault of Biden it doesn't matter what Trump could or couldn't have done.

@TCooper My answer is addressing that many of the issues that are causing inflation right now predate Biden. Part of the reason interest rates did not get raised during the Trump years (which would have caused inflation) is because of Trumps demands to not raise them. The bigger issue here is that Biden isn't really to blame for what is happening with inflation.

"No, the inflation that the country seeing is not the fault of Biden." is very different than acknowledging "many of the issues causing inflation right now predate Biden". Trump wouldn't have been in a position to prevent it by keeping rates artificially low had Obama not created the scenario. But Obama wasn't in his position except for what Bush did, which really we can link back to Clinton's admin which... oh yeah, they're just covering up the previous messes as best they can. It's not Biden I agree, but why do you pin it on Trump more than him or anyone else?

@TCooper A lot happened during the Trump years that caused a lot of money to be pumped into the economy and rates were kept artificially low. If you look at what I linked it includes a quote about keeping in place "radical" polices that got put in place after the 2008 crisis. That combined with Trump's constant statements about needing to keep interest rates low makes me point to what wasn't done there in regards to how inflation is now rising.

@JoeW I see that, I'm just questioning what makes the action of keeping interest rates down then more relevant than the 5 trillion in new money printed since he's left office?

@TCooper Because that is one of the factors that causes inflation. Higher costs of borrowing means that things in general cost more. Not to mention how much money was printed when Trump was in office?

Yeah, something like 2.5T was printed while Trump was in office, of the 4T since '08, which is all eclipsed by the 5T in the last two years. I agree 100% you're making a valid point, but I don't see how one factor that is Trump's fault excludes Biden from blame now. You say it's a factor that causes inflation as well... how does that answer why this one point is more relevant than any of the other myriad of causes (i.e. insane increases in money supply the last 2 years)?

@TCooper Which is more evidence that this is not a problem caused by Biden but something that has been building up for a while. The issue is that the blame can't be placed on a single person.

So we agree on that, just curious why you spend your answer trying to pin the blame it on Trump then? Also, maybe you just mistyped/misspoke, but if you think the fed raising the rates is the cause of inflation, might want to read here: npr.org/2022/06/15/1105026915/….

Good answer, but in the interest of even handedness, it would be interesting to note if there are any policies of Biden that may also have had a hand in making this problem worse. But, yes, as far back as 2018, The Economist was already flagging Trump's policies as risky-in-case-of-inflation even though they then simultaneously went on to somewhat dismiss the fears for a return of inflation.

It's true that you shouldn't blame everything on Joe Biden, but Biden administration policies of extending lockdowns, increasing money printing, discouraging oil production, etc. Have no doubt made it much worse.

@ItalianPhilosophers4Monica The problem is attempts are being made to shift all of the blame to Biden and make it seem as if we would not have the problem at all if Trump was still in office which is not true at all.

This focuses heavily on one of three main contributing factors, it could do with detailing supply chain issues resulting from the pandemic and the russo-ukraine war

@Gramatik I am focusing on reasons that show that inflation was happening before Biden took office and that also include the pandemic and actions taken during the Trump years. It is not intended to cover every possible cause of inflation just to show that it was happening before Biden took office.

@JoeW I don't disagree that some are pushing all the blame to Biden while Trump bears a lot of it. But I still think this answer could do with some examination of what policies Biden also followed that could have contributed. As it is, this answer sounds more than a bit like it wants to do the same things the Reps are doing: "it's all the other dude's fault, honest!". I still upvoted, because on balance pushing for growth at all cost on his watch is clearly something Trump did wrong. Besides everyone kept 2007-2008 rates, not just the US.

@ItalianPhilosophers4Monica I am not trying to address the issue of who all is to blame for inflation as I think that answer would be longer then I could fit in a single answer. I was just trying to point out that inflation was happening regardless of what Biden has done or what has happened since he took office.

-1 because "No, the inflation that the country seeing is not the fault of Biden" is very different from what your answer actually supports (and the truth) which is that the Biden administration isn't the exclusive cause of inflation. There are plenty of reasons that inflation is high. Some of those have been directly affected by Biden (as well as Congressional Democrats,) while others have not been. The U.S. has had more (cumulative total) inflation in the 15 months from Jan '21 to Apr '22 than it did during the entire 4.5 years before that combined. To say this was ongoing is misleading.

(Source for that, by the way, is the Consumer Price Index, the primary official U.S. government measure of inflation. It increased about 8% total over the 4+ years before Biden took office and has increased at 11% since then.) 2% annual inflation is not high and is even intentionally targeted by the government. 9% annual inflation (and rising) is a different matter entirely.

@reirab My answer is pointing out that inflation is happening and would be happening regardless of what Biden did and that Trump would not have done it better. I am not going into all the details of what causes inflation as I feel it won't be able to fit in a single answer.

@JoeW But your answer doesn't actually support that assertion at all. I get that that's your point, but you don't provide anything that really backs it up. You provide evidence only for a completely different assertion (that he isn't responsible for all of the inflation.) In particular, you provide no explanation at all for why inflation has dramatically increased in the past year from where it was for the prior several years (and decades, for that matter.)

@reirab And that was my goal, I was showing that inflation would have happened regardless and in part due to Trump's actions. The point was about the claim that it is Biden's fault and Trump would have done better.

@JoeW But nothing cited in your answer shows - or even suggests - that the same level of inflation would have happened regardless. It is easy enough from historical data to see that it was definitely not happening at anywhere near that rate prior to 2021 (at least not since the late 1970s/early 1980s.) Some inflation would have happened anyway - like the 2-3% that was already happening - but there's nothing in this answer to explain why it's now near double digits vs. around 2% a year and a half ago. Everyone agrees that some inflation would happen regardless, but the question is how much.