The View from Right Field

Got That Wrong: Inflation

As you saw last Friday, I am starting a new feature: “Got That Wrong.”  I have been blogging a long time.  It’s time to go back and fess up on things where I “got that wrong.”¹ 

Today, inflation.  I have really gotten that wrong over the years.  I have written about inflation many times.  And I have been wrong pretty much all of them.  At one point, I wrote about an increase in the money supply that did not result in an increase in inflation.  I thought it might have been because there was a drop in the velocity of money.  I don’t know.  For whatever reason, inflation didn’t come.  Which I think is good.  Others, such as the Federal Reserve here and the European Central Bank there, don’t.  They have been trying, and pretty much failing, to get the inflation rate up for quite a while.  

Got That Wrong: U.S. Attorney for Northern District of Illinois

In a post back in August of 2020 on why Kim Foxx would win re-election as Cook County State’s Attorney (she did), I said:

“It is entirely possible that the biggest reason the Illinois Democratic Party, or at least its leaders, wants to beat Donald Trump in November is not his response to Covid-19 – or any other policy President Trump has.  Instead, it might be because, if Joe Biden wins, John Lausch might no longer be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.  A President Biden can replace him.  In 2008, when the investigation of then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was going on, Barack Obama promised that he would not replace then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald­­­­­.  As far as I know, Joe Biden has not made a similar promise.  And I would not expect him to do so.  Getting rid of Mr. Lausch is too important to Illinois Democrats.”

It looks like I might have been wrong on this.  The Biden administration has told almost all U.S. attorneys that they need to submit their resignations by the end of February.  In response, both Illinois Senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth (the former being more important than the latter), have urged President Biden to keep John Lausch, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, on the job.  Which is the opposite of what I said in August.