INFLATION?  WHAT INFLATION?  – OVERNIGHT:  You mean there's inflation, and people have to work on it, with all the social justice and climate problems we have?  Say it ain't so.    From the Washington Times: 

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers’ criticism that the Federal Reserve and other central banks are too focused on “woke” social issues reflects a growing concern that policymakers aren’t paying enough attention to inflation.

The argument from Mr. Summers, a Democrat, also comes as Senate Republicans are trying to prevent congressional Democrats and President Biden from pressuring the Fed to install regional directors who would devote some of their duties to climate change and racial equity. They describe it as a dangerous case of “mission creep” from the central bank’s traditional role of ensuring maximum employment and price stability.

All 12 Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee fired a warning shot this month at the Fed’s regional offices in Boston and Dallas, which are seeking new presidents.

“Several Regional Federal Reserve Banks, including yours, have embraced politically-charged social causes outside of the Federal Reserve’s historical mission and statutory mandate,” the senators wrote to the Boston office. “This mission creep threatens the credibility and independence of the Federal Reserve. The role and purpose of the Regional Federal Reserve Banks is to limit the concentration of power in D.C. and represent the economic interests of their respective regions, not to engage in partisan politics.”

Mr. Summers sounded the alarm earlier this month while speaking to a virtual conference organized by the Institute of International Finance.

“We have a generation of central bankers who are defining themselves by their wokeness,” said Mr. Summers, who is now a professor at Harvard University. “They’re defining themselves by how socially concerned they are. We’re in more danger than we’ve been during my career of losing control of inflation in the U.S.”

He said the problem is even worse in Great Britain and Europe.

Ludovic Subran, the chief economist at the Germany-based insurer and asset manager Allianz SE, said Mr. Summers chose a “media savvy” way of raising concerns about the expanding role of central banks in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis of 2007-08.

COMMENT:  Summers is right.  Wokeness is a folly that can crush the very people it claims to be helping.  Inflation is growing.  Anger about it can change the balance of power in Congress, but by then it may be too late to prevent serious damage to the American family.

October 25,  2021