BlackRock's Fink: Inflation Will Be Sticky, But That'll 'Help' Since Wages Are Rising, Food 'Moderated' — It Was Bad Before

During an interview aired on Tuesday's broadcast of CNBC's “Mad Money,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said that he thinks “we're going to have higher inflation than most people believe, and much of that is going to help those people who are worried. Wage inflation is continuing. Food inflation has moderated in the last six to 12 months.” But we failed to account for how bad it was in late 2022 and early 2023.

Host Jim Cramer asked, “[H]ow do we convince them, like we were convinced by our parents, that we are going to make more than they did? I knew, from day one, my father said, you will make more than I do, and that's what's going to happen to you. And I had, every Thanksgiving, … you're going to make more than I do. My kid — no kid I know thinks they're going to make anywhere near what our generation did.”

Fink responded, “I'm more bullish on that, Jim. I think that there's going to be — there's so much room for innovation. At the same time, we were at a lucky part. We were in a lucky era, and, — but we were in a lucky era because we had the foundation of growth as an economy, and that's why I'm calling — we need to be thinking about, not cutbacks. We need to be talking about how do we grow, how do we build? If we start really building out our infrastructure in our country, if we start working on digitization and decarbonization, we are going to create a lot of jobs. And wages are going up. This is why, as you know, I've been talking about higher inflation for longer, stickier inflation, and I still believe we're going to have higher inflation than most people believe, and much of that is going to help those people who are worried. Wage inflation is continuing. Food inflation has moderated in the last six to 12 months. But we did not account for how much inflation we had in late '22 and early '23. If you add up food inflation, if you add up all the measures — the way you measured inflation back in the 80s, inflation was close to 12%, not what they said, for the average person, and that's what they felt.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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