Inflation wasn’t pushed higher by China tariffs imposed in 2018. It was caused by record-breaking government spending during the pandemic, and supply chain snafus. The supply chain woes that began in 2020 because of the pandemic and America’s over-reliance on China for everything from Tylenol to those ubiquitous Covid-era face masks caused prices to spike.

Former Treasury Secretary Ben Bernanke said most of the inflation surge that began in 2021 was the result of sharp increases in commodity prices and sectoral price spikes, resulting from changes in demand together with constraints on supply. The words “tariff” or “Section 301” did not appear on any of Bernanke’s 41-page explainer on what caused inflation to rise so fast.

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