The Fed Has ‘Lost Control of Inflation’ Says Stifel’s Chief Economist

The chief economist of investment bank Stifel has said that the Fed has ‘lost control of inflation,’ in a conversation which alluded to the 1970s – referred to as the decade of inflation.

Lindsey Piegza made the comments about The Federal Reserve in an interview with Squawk Box host Joe Kernan earlier this week.

During the conversation, Kernan was keen to stress that America isn’t facing a repeat of the high inflation 70s. At the same time, the TV host invoked the maxim that ‘history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme’. 

Stressing the importance of the matter, Kernan went on to suggest that inflation is effectively as bad as a tax for fiat.

“It’s absolutely a tax,” agreed Piegza. “I think the Fed has absolutely lost control of inflation at this point,” she added. “They continue to tell us that it’s transitory, that as the economy recalibrates that we will see price pressures coming down to a more palatable 2% level, but we have to remember that wage pressures are also on the rise. Wage pressures tend to be more sticky.”

Piegza went on to predict that inflation would rise not only to the end of the year ‘but into 2022 as well.’ The current rate of inflation in the US is 6.2%.

Inflation is the rate at which the purchasing power of fiat money devalues when compared to other assets, including consumer goods, services, and cryptocurrency. So while fiat holders can expect the purchasing power of their fiat money to decrease due to inflation, crypto hodlers expect the purchasing power of their crypto to increase via the same mechanism. 

Bitcoin as an inflationary hedge

Over the course of 2021 inflationary fears have helped to push the price of bitcoin upwards, as traders acquire the cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation. Over the period the price of bitcoin rose from $29,000 at the start of the year to an all-time high of $69,044 on November 10.

BTC currently sits at the more modest figure of $58,956, but high inflation rates in the US and elsewhere should for the foreseeable future continue to contribute to upward price pressure on the currency.

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