Former Fed Economist Warns on Climbing Interest Rates and Price Inflation

Former Federal Reserve economist Arnold Kling is not saying anything that EPJ readers aren't aware of, but it is instructive that the fear of what is developing has has registered with Kling who is a card-carrying beltarian, currently at Cato Shrugged. He writes:

[...]consider the scenario that worries me. Our debt continues to increase. Nominal interest rates rise, so the government has to borrow more just to finance the debt. Congress wants to avoid having to cut spending elsewhere, and the Fed is asked to do its part.[...] 

My guess is that in practice, for a variety of reasons, when the cost of government debt starts to rise, the Fed is not going to be willing/able to sterilize its funding of the debt, through IOR or any other means. We are going to see both intended and unintended monetary expansion, and that will produce inflation.

On a side note, any money printing is the direct result of Federal Reserve operations. Kling has the warning right, but only a beltarian, with a Cato Shrugged paycheck, could mix this very important warning with the next paragraph he writes:

 As usual, let me say that I am not blaming the Fed or saying that inflation is just around the corner. When really out-of-control inflation emerges, it is a fiscal phenomenon.