BiggerPockets Money Podcast · Friday, October 2, 2026
Jay Scott outlines two primary drivers of inflation: demand-pull and cost-push. He notes that post-COVID stimulus and pent-up demand fueled significant inflation in 2021-2023. Currently, however, supply-side issues, including the war in Ukraine, energy constraints, and tariffs, are major contributors.
“In technical terms, we call them cost push inflation and demand pull inflation. But basically what it means is some inflation is generated on the demand side. When people are making lots of money, when wages are going up, when the government might be printing money and everybody's flush with cash. What are they going to do? They're going to go spend a lot of it.”
“The second piece is that the type of inflation or the catalyst for the inflation that we're seeing today is energy. It's specifically energy.”
“The war in Ukraine, which you certainly can't blame Trump for. I would say you can't blame Biden for. I think Putin's the only guy you can blame for that. That's been a huge factor in the energy crisis that we're seeing today.”