For months, President Joe Biden has blamed Russia's war in Ukraine for the United States' record-high inflation, calling it "Putin's Price Hike." Unfortunately for the White House, however, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell just shot down this theory.
"Inflation was high before—certainly before the war in Ukraine broke out," Powell said Wednesday during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
By the time Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, inflation had already skyrocketed from 1.4 percent at the start of Biden's presidency to 7.9 percent—a 40-year high. Many economists blame the president's $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed in March 2021, for driving up consumer prices.