Biden and the Fed Wanted a Hot Economy. There’s Risk of Getting Burned.

Seen at a U-Haul in Overland, Mo., earlier this summer. A “high-pressure” economy has brought more people into the labor market and pushed up wages at the lower end of the income scale. Credit…Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

There is a big idea in economic policy that has become ascendant in recent years: Great things can be achieved for American workers if the economy is allowed to run hot.

The notion of creating a “high-pressure” economy is that government should be willing to risk a bit of inflation in the near term to achieve conditions that will over the long run lift people out of poverty, prevent the scars of recessions from becoming permanent, and make the nation’s economic potential stronger.

This idea has origins in a 1973 paper by Arthur M. Okun, and was largely confined to think tank