Last updated Nov 29, 2025
economy
Inflation in supply-driven economies outside the US will transmit into the US, driving a noticeable increase in US consumer prices over the following 12–18 months (through roughly mid‑2023).
if you're seeing inflation in those other, you know, supply driven economies, they are going to come on shore. They're going to hit us in the face I think prices are going up.View on YouTube
Explanation

Between the October 16, 2021 episode and roughly mid‑2023 (12–18 months later), U.S. consumer prices did in fact rise substantially, and research attributes a large share of that run‑up to global, supply‑driven shocks originating in other economies:

  • The CPI index for all urban consumers rose from about 276–278 in October–December 2021 to about 303–305 by April–June 2023, an increase of roughly 9–10% over that period, showing a clear further rise in U.S. consumer prices after the podcast date. (officialdata.org)
  • Annual U.S. inflation hit about 8.0% in 2022 and remained elevated at around 4.1% in 2023—well above pre‑pandemic norms—so the 12–18 months following late 2021 were characterized by unusually high consumer price inflation. (officialdata.org)
  • A 2023 Economic Letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco finds that global supply chain disruptions after COVID—measured using a Global Supply Chain Pressure Index that aggregates data from major foreign manufacturing economies such as China, the euro area, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.K.—accounted for about 60% of the above‑trend surge in U.S. inflation in 2021–2022. These disruptions raised import prices and intermediate input costs that were then passed through into U.S. consumer prices. (frbsf.org)

Taken together, the data show (a) a pronounced further increase in U.S. consumer prices over the 12–18 months after October 2021, and (b) strong evidence that supply‑driven inflation pressures from abroad and global supply chain problems transmitted into U.S. inflation. That matches Chamath’s prediction that inflation in supply‑driven economies abroad would “come on shore” and push U.S. prices up during that horizon.