Coburn warns young people will get hit by looming inflation [Video]

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) warned Tuesday that young Americans could be particularly hit hard by looming inflation triggered by the nation’s nearly $16 trillion in debt.

The Senator says the dirty little secret in Washington is that monetary inflation currently stands at over 8 percent, not the commonly reported 2.3 percent inflation rate. He suggests that the real inflation rate due today is the highest it has been since 1980 when it reached 14.8 percent.

Hudson Institute economist Diana Furtchgott-Roth, corroborates Coburn’s assertion saying that the Bureau of Labor Statistics changed the way inflation is calculated. Consequently, inflation today is actually much higher than the commonly reported statistic.

“They are not going to be able to sterilize the debt, and of course they intend that because when you debase the currency, you increase the amount of money the federal government gets out of it,” Coburn said.

But this bodes poorly for college students and others because their purchasing power for key goods becomes diminished.

“If you are a college student today one out of two can’t get a full-time job,” Coburn said. “Do you realize that’s going to three out of four in four years?”