Is higher immigration the answer to surging inflation, or at least a big part of the answer? One of the side effects of rising prices has been a spike in the number of people saying so. In January, Chamber of Commerce president Suzanne Clark said we should double legal immigration: “It might be the fastest thing to do to impact inflation.” . . .
I go through some of the reasons this won’t work. One more point: Sometimes this argument for more immigration depends on the idea that we’re in a wage-price spiral, with rising wages driving overall inflation. In fact, though, real wages — inflation-adjusted wages — are dropping.