Bill Ackman: US should fight inflation with ‘increased immigration’

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman argued that the US should open its doors to “increased immigration,” saying such a shift in policy would be more effective at combating inflation than raising interest rates.

“Doesn’t it make more sense to moderate wage inflation with increased immigration than by raising rates, destroying demand, putting people out of work, and causing a recession?” Ackman wrote on Twitter late Thursday.

The CEO of Pershing Square Capital added that the Federal Reserve faces an uphill battle against key challenges, including the current wave of rampant wage inflation that is pushing prices higher and sapping corporate profits.

“Inflation can be mitigated by reducing demand and/or by increasing supply. The federal reserve can only reduce demand by raising rates, a very blunt tool,” he wrote. “Wage inflation will likely continue until rates rise to restrictive levels.”

Ackman — who has a net worth of $2.5 billion, according to Bloomberg — concluded his tweetstorm saying, “if we can target immigration policy to achieve important political objectives like catalyzing a Russian talent drain to the US, why shouldn’t we?”

Ackman’s comments come on the heels of the Federal Reserve raising rates by 0.75 percentage points this week for the third straight time, after which Fed chairman Jerome Powell said, “we have got to get inflation behind us; I wish there were a painless way to do that. There isn’t.”