A means not A. No, really.
I’m mocking this commentary from today’s paper: BONNIE ERBE: Illegal immigration causes hidden inflation. Here’s why. In the middle of the article, he approvingly quotes a January 2005 Bear Stearns article that says (his direct quote):
The growing extralegal system in the United States has distorted economic statistics and government budget projections. The stealth labor force has enhanced many of the economic releases that investors follow closely. Payroll numbers understate true job growth and inflation has been artificially dampened by this seemingly endless supply of low-wage workers.
He then concludes his article, “Now we have another, this time financial, equation to contemplate.
Unfettered illegal immigration boosts inflation while hiding the effects from the general public.”
Except his conclusion exactly contradicts the report he’s relying on. I wonder if he even read the article that he’s relying on to support his point? The rest of his article is free-form supply and demand via personal experience; he supposes that more workers means more resource demand… which would mean higher inflation. His whole point depends on that correlation… which is undercut by the only article he bothered to cite.
Better pundits please.