Entrepreneur Frank Thelen appeals to “Lanz” to stop his “policy of printing money”. Journalist Ulrike Herrmann, that’s not the “fundamental problem”.
Entrepreneur Frank Thelen warned of galloping inflation at Markus Lanz on Thursday evening.
“If I print more and more euros (…), then the single euro is worth less,” Thelen says.
Thelen: Raising key interest rate creates new problems
This does not solve the problems and is not a “funny story”. Conclusion: “[Die Realwirtschaft] responded with nine percent inflation. We have a 2 percent inflation target.”
As a countermeasure, the key interest rate was raised by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. What “other problems” will arise, “because [Unternehmen] they no longer have access to capital.” The result, according to Thelen, is “maybe more bankruptcies.”
Journalist Ulrike Herrmann: Debt is not the cause of inflation
Journalist Ulrike Herrmann opposed this analysis of inflation, calling it “completely false”:
And also: “The main driver of inflation is food, because it needs a lot of energy to produce, the energy itself (…) and disrupting supply chains from China.”
According to Herrmann, “three percent of global containers” were waiting at the metropolitan port in April due to the lockdown in Shanghai. As a result, supply chains “have been disrupted for months around the world”.
The company’s response further fueled inflation: “Many supply-strapped companies increased their prices because they had fewer offers, and then (…) made bigger profits.”
On the other hand, “debt generation by the state” is not the “fundamental problem”. The debt level is currently around 66 percent of economic output, which is “small”.
Thelen: Too much money in circulation
Thelen agreed with Herrmann’s statements, but at one point vehemently disagreed. Inflation would continue to rise if “central banks kept putting that much money into circulation”.
This is exactly why the US Federal Reserve is “withdrawing large sums of money right now”. Frank Thelen objected:
Source: ZDF
I am Timothy Glover, a professional journalist and content creator. I specialize in writing and editing for news websites, specifically covering politics. I have been working as an author at News Unrolled for the past five years and have built up a reputation for producing quality content that is both informative and engaging.
