The Federal Reserve doesn't have to tackle inflation alone. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the former chief economist for the Department of Labor under the Trump Administration and an adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University, says that an adjustment to President Biden's current energy policy could help to alleviate the supply chain issues contributing to inflation. Oil is central to this conversation.

President Biden started his first week in office with several energy related executive orders, including suspending new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and reviewing current leases. These orders were the actualization of Biden's campaign promises, but in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the subsequent suspension of oil imports from Russia, the policy is proving to drive up energy prices and exacerbate supply chain issues, according to Furchtgott-Roth.

"Energy has been the big driver. President Biden could lower oil prices by about $10 to $20 per barrel if he went back on his previous policies that put a lot of areas off limits to drilling. If he put those areas back, then we could have an effect on the inflation rate," Furchtgott-Roth tells GlobeSt.com. "The Fed needs to work together with the administration."

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.