, Columnist
$877 Billion in Checks Won’t Automatically Fuel Inflation
Helicopter money succeeded in plugging a gap in lost business from the pandemic, but it’s harder to see how it alone could lead to a sustained period of surging prices.
This isn’t necessarily a starting signal for higher prices.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Never underestimate the seemingly endless appetite of U.S. consumers, who now have a huge stockpile of cash at their disposal. Or so goes the theory, increasingly popular among economists and money managers, that has fueled some predictions of resurgent inflation.
But new research calls into question just how big this cash cushion is relative to households’ obligations and how much Americans are truly willing to spend.