Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expects elevated prices at grocery shops, eating places and elsewhere to finally ease up once provide chain points are resolved.
“I believe it’s transitory. But I don’t mean to suggest that these pressures will disappear in the next month or two,” Yellen instructed “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday.
The pandemic “led to a huge shift in demand away from services and toward goods. And it’s created huge bottlenecks in supply chains,” she stated. “As the economy adjusts and we get the pandemic under control, the global economy comes back, these pressures will mitigate and, I believe, will go back to normal levels.”
An enormous backlog of cargo ships ready to get into ports in Southern California has helped drive up the prices of products and companies in the course of the pandemic. There’s additionally a scarcity of vans and drivers to transport the products from ports.
With restricted inventories and labor shortages, retailers are urging shoppers to begin their vacation procuring early. Yellen urged shoppers to keep calm.
“There may be isolated shortages of goods and services in the coming months,” Yellen stated. “But there is an ample supply of goods. I think there’s no reason for consumers to panic about the absence of goods that they’re gonna want to acquire at Christmas.”
Nonetheless, there might be catastrophic results for People if Congress doesn’t increase or droop the debt restrict, Yellen warned. Congress punted the debt ceiling debate to December after passing a short-term extension.
“It’s absolutely necessary for Congress to take action to raise or suspend the debt limit,” Yellen stated, including that it may “absolutely” lead to a recession.
“Fifty million seniors would risk not seeing their Social Security checks arrive on time. Our troops would have to worry about when or if they were going to be paid,” she stated. “We would see an increase in interest rates on all forms of borrowing, on mortgages, on credit cards. Households would see their interest bills go up.”
