At a CPAC panel on Thursday, APP’s executive director Terry Schilling told GOP candidates to look to monetary policy to explain the average family’s shrinking paycheck:

“The demand for digital currency like Bitcoin is a symptom of a larger problem—failed monetary policy,” Schilling said. “People are looking for alternatives to the dollar because of decades of mismanaged monetary policy.”

“The combined phenomena of wage stagnation and rising prices have been occurring for decades, but the Federal Reserve has exacerbated the problem in recent years since the advent of their near-zero interest rate policy,” Schilling continued. “While this has been wonderful for the stock market, it has resulted in a shrinking middle class and a growing gap between the richest among us, who have done just fine over the past several years, and working families, who have not.

“The Federal Reserve needs to look out for working families, not just the wealthy. Continuing this reckless near-zero interest rate policy hurts more than it helps.”