Elon Musk warns inflation under Biden could turn the U.S. into the next Venezuela

Tech billionaire Elon Musk blasted President Biden during a podcast interview on Monday, warning that if the government keeps printing money, inflation could reach similar levels to Venezuela.

Speaking to “The All-In Podcast,” Musk echoed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ claim that the Biden administration has regularly relied on “misdirection” to “muddy the topic” of inflation.

"I mean, the obvious reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had, obviously," Musk said, suggesting that the government’s American Rescue Plan pandemic relief stimulus bill has contributed to the unprecedented levels of inflation felt across the United States which hit a 40-year-high in April.

"So it's like the government can't just, you know, issue checks far in excess of revenue without there being inflation, you know, velocity of money held constant," he argued.

"If the federal government writes checks, they never bounce. So that is effectively creation of more dollars. And if there are more dollars created, then the increase in the goods and services across the economy, then you have inflation, again, velocity of money held constant."

"If the government could just issue massive amounts of money and deficits didn't matter, then, well, why don't we just make the deficit 100 times bigger? The answer is, you can't because it will basically turn the dollar into something that is worthless," he noted. 

"Various countries have tried this experiment multiple times," Musk noted. "Have you seen Venezuela? Like the poor, poor people of Venezuela are, you know, have been just run roughshod by their government."

Since socialist dictator Hugo Chavez took power in Venezuela in 1998, the country has spiraled into an economic and social nightmare. Under Nicolas Maduro, things have only gotten worse.

In Venezuela — where inflation reached a staggering 65,374.08% in 2018— the hunger brought about the left’s failed economic policies has only added to the regime’s many human rights abuses.

As millions of individuals continue to flee to neighboring countries, those who remain struggle to eat as the country continues to suffer from food shortages brought about by the regime’s desperate attempts to fix the broken economy by implementing price controls and seizing farms.  

But as Musk noted, once the regime started printing money to combat rising inflation, prices soared, unemployment increased and the economy effectively collapsed.

"So obviously you can't simply create money," Musk said.

Musk went on to admit that he previously voted “overwhelmingly for Democrats,” but warned that Biden might not even be in control of the political levers in Washington.

"The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter," Musk said. "The path to power is the path to the teleprompter."

"I do feel like if somebody were to accidentally lean on the teleprompter, it's going to be like Anchorman," the Tesla CEO added, referencing the 2004 film “Anchorman” in which Ron Burgundy mindlessly reads whatever is written on the teleprompter.

"This administration doesn't seem to get a lot done," he added. "The Trump administration, leaving Trump aside, there were a lot of people in the administration who were effective at getting things done."

Musk further argued that the Democratic Party is “overly controlled by the unions and by the trial lawyers, particularly the class action lawyers” and warned that when progressives go against “the interests of the people," it tends to come from the unions and the trial lawyers, while when Republicans do that, "it's because of corporate evil and religious zealotry." 

"In the case of Biden, he is simply too much captured by the unions, which was not the case with Obama," Musk said, adding that Obama was “quite reasonable” when dealing with unions.