Loose monetary policy has spawned record-high inflation in the US economy, a circumstance that is not going to change soon, US financier Carl Icahn told MarketWatch this week. The 86-year-old, who heads up the conglomerate Icahn Enterprises, has long been one of the most prominent names on Wall Street.
“You should not be printing money if you have inflation… We printed up too much money, and just thought the party would never end. And the party’s over,” he said at MarketWatch’s Best New Ideas in Money Festival.
US inflation in August came in at 8.3% year-on-year, soaring to a nearly 40-year-high. Analysts are warning that the country is headed into a recession, while polls show that a growing number of Americans are unhappy with the way the economy is being handled.
The US Federal Reserve this week hiked the federal funds rate by 75 basis points to a range of 3.00% to 3.25% with the aim of easing inflation by slowing the economy. While lauding the move, Icahn noted that the measure is long overdue and could have been more aggressive. He also warned that the move may not bear fruit.
“Inflation is a terrible thing. You can’t cure it,” the billionaire investor stated.
According to Icahn, inflation is playing a significant role in the US stock market’s recent downturn. The hotter than expected August consumer price index print triggered a sharp selloff in markets earlier this month. On September 13, stocks saw their worst day of trading since June 2020, while this past Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to its lowest point in nearly two years. The S&P 500 plummeted more than 15% and the Nasdaq fell 20% since March. The investor, however, warned that “the worst is yet to come.”
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