On Wednesday’s The 11th Hour on MSNBC, in her discussion with NPR business correspondent David Gura, host Stephanie Ruhle proved once again that she knows very little about economics or even basic business. While Americans are suffering under crushing inflationary pressures, Ruhle let the Biden administration off the hook and claimed the media and people with political agendas are leading the United States into a recession and enabling businesses to use the constant drum beat of inflation chatter as an excuse to raise prices.
While Ruhle did tacitly admit that the amount of stimulus pumped into the economy helped lead to the forty-year high inflation, she excused the spending because we were in a once-in-a-century pandemic.
Ruhle then sought to shift blame from the Federal Reserve chair who is tasked with raising interest rates to cool the economy without tipping it into a recession:
Another thing the Fed can't do, though is control media hype or political agendas. In some ways, we're talking ourselves into an inflation frenzy. When you talk about it every minute of every day, then every possible business out there raises their prices, why? Because they can. Cause no one’s going to argue, why are you raising that price? Inflation, inflation, inflation. Every restaurant, I can't get enough workers, and they’re not acknowledging because of COVID and outside seating -- they have now doubled the amount of customers they serve every day. In the same way that we talk and panic so much about recession, we are getting people panicked for a recession coming. Isn't that adding to some of these issues? And that’s something that Jay Powell can't touch!
As the business correspondent of state-run propaganda outlet NPR, Gura predictably agreed with Ruhle’s delusional and economically illiterate commentary. “This is such a crucial point. And I remember a few months back talking with Wall Street analysts just about this increasing bearishness that you are seeing on Wall Street, and how contagious that is,” Gura noted.
Gura added that “there becomes a sense that this could be somewhat self-fulfilling if there is a fear leading to actions that could sort of kickstart or accelerate a recession. I think it's something definitely to watch in the weeks to come.”
Ruhle then jumped in to claim her audience who she just whipped up into a panic, by explaining “a recession does not mean the great depression, they happen, they happen every few years. Sometimes for a long period, time sometimes for a short period of time, it is a normal part of our economic cycle.”
That is comforting to Americans who will lose their jobs if there is a recession to know that it could last for a “short period of time.”
This economically ignorant segment was made possible by Walgreens. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript of this segment, click “expand”:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour
6/22/2022
11:52:24 p.m. EasternSTEPHANIE RUHLE: Okay, another thing the Fed can't do, though is control media hype or political agendas. In some ways, we're talking ourselves into an inflation frenzy. When you talk about it every minute of every day, then every possible business out there raises their prices, why? Because they can. Cause no one’s going to argue, why are you raising that price? Inflation, inflation, inflation. Every restaurant, I can't get enough workers, and they’re not acknowledging because of COVID and outside seating -- they have now doubled the amount of customers they serve every day. In the same way that we talk and panic so much about recession, we are getting people panicked for a recession coming. Isn't that adding to some of these issues? And that’s something that Jay Powell can't touch!
DAVID GURA (NPR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT): This is such a crucial point. And I remember a few months back talking with Wall Street analysts just about this increasing bearishness that you are seeing on Wall Street, and how contagious that is, I think this is a real problem when you see it with a number of companies who are announcing layoffs, JP Morgan announced they’re going to lay off about a thousand people who kind of work on the housing and mortgage side of things today. There becomes a sense that this could be somewhat self-fulfilling if there is a fear leading to actions that could sort of kickstart or accelerate a recession. I think it's something definitely to watch in the weeks to come, Steph.
RUHLE: And we should remind our audience, a recession does not mean the great depression, they happen, they happen every few years. Sometimes for a long period, time sometimes for a short period of time, it is a normal part of our economic cycle.
