Fact checking Chris Christie…

the king of misinformation? or disinformation?

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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was interviewed by Bret Baier about his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. In the interview Christie repeated what he asserted at the second GOP debate hosted by Fox, namely, inflation has been caused by Biden’s spending spree. He also did mention that Trump added nearly $7 trillion to the national debt. The Donald was no fiscal conservative.

Price inflation is caused by monetary inflation. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet more than doubled between 2020 and 2022 (see graph below). The Fed pays for these assets—mainly government debt and mortgage backed securities— by creating new money which enters the banking system and is then diffused throughout the economy causing consumer prices, commodities, asset prices, and eventually wages to rise.

If Christie does not know how inflation unfolds in the economy, then he is his ignorant of basic monetary economics or is another presidential candidate who is a shill for the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, and corporate America. Anyone who states Fed Chairman has done a great job should be dismissed as an “inflationist”—an unapologetic advocate of easy money, which causes enormous damage to the economy and primarily benefits the top one percent of income earners.

If Christie does know that the Fed is responsible for inflation and continues to blame “Bidenomics,” then he his campaign is based on disinformation.

Bret Baier did not challenge Christie about his "inflation analysis” and apparently neither have the talking heads on the other cable and TV talk shows. Where were these people during the 2008 and 2012 GOP primary debates when Ron Paul was excoriating the Fed for its inflationary policies? Nevertheless, Christie can watch any of the videos when Dr. Paul was a congressman or candidate criticizing the Fed for its money printing.

Christie also repeated a bogus achievement that in his first year as governor in 2010 he “inherited” an $11 billion budget deficit. This claim is false as has been reported by a fact check of Christie’s assertion. The budget deficit he inherited was about $2 billion. The $11 billion budget deficit he claims is the so-called structural deficit, which is irrelevant in the actual budget deliberations. It’s like saying I would like to spend a million dollars this year but my income is only $200,000, therefore I have an $800,000 deficit.

On the foreign policy front Christie takes a page out of the neoconservative policy playbook. He asserts American support for vital for our “national security.” If Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, Europe will be “overrun” by the Russian military. This is a false narrative. If this is true, then why aren’t European nations sending their troops into Ukraine to stop the Russian “advance” if their national security will be threatened? The fact that Germany, France, and other countries are keeping their troops at home speaks volume about the hostilities in Ukraine. Putin wants Ukraine not to be in NATO and to protect the Russian speaking Ukrainians living in the eastern regions of the country.

The bottom line: Chris Christie is another Big Government Republican posing as a fiscal conservative who wholeheartedly supports the military-industrial-congressional complex. That’s why he has become a mainstream media darling.

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My essay on the economy was published in Fortune, https://fortune.com/2023/03/27/ -2023-layoffs-tech-finance-unemployment-outlook-fed-rates-murray-sabrin/  This is an update of my 2021 forecast, https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/next-recession-heres-everything-bubble-markets-2021-2022-covid-murray-sabrin/ 

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Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle.  Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.