Inflation has been beat. It's time for the Fed to cut: Krugman

Vice President Kamala Harris has announced her economic policies, should she take office, which includes a measure to ban price gouging on food and groceries. Could her policies be feasible and how will it her campaign? and will it impact the current economic landscape?

New York Times op-ed columnist and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner Paul Krugman joins Catalysts to give insight into the current economic landscape and his take on the election.

When it comes to Harris's plan, Krugman says "price gouging happens" and that "if the Harris people think that price gouging was a central factor in recent inflation, I'd be worried because I don't know very many economists who think that that's right. If they think that it's OK to single out a few examples and make some gestures, fine."

On how the current economy, Krugman begins plainly: "We've beaten inflation. I mean when you take out sort of lagged effects of housing, most measures are pretty much at the Fed's 2% target or at most a fraction of a percentage point above it."

So what does Krugman worry about? "It does look as if there's at least some risk that we might be tipping into a slowdown. We're almost certainly not in a recession. Now, we won't be in one for a few months, even on the worst-case scenario, but it's time for the Fed to start cutting," says Krugman

In terms of how it will affect Harris's campaign: "Unless there's a big spike in unemployment, I would almost say that the next jobs report is going to be the last one that matters for the election. Right now, so far as objective economic indicators go, it's a pretty good place for Harris, it's very unlikely that we'll be in something that looks like a recession in time for it to matter to voters."

Watch the video to hear what Krugman says about tech billionaires backing former President Donald Trump.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

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