Fourth Stimulus Check Update: Experts Continue Warning About How Payments 'Make Matters Worse'

Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of a new round of stimulus checks as they continue to deal with relentless inflation. However, experts are also still warning that more checks will continue to make the problem worse.

Recent surveys have shown overwhelming majorities of Americans are supportive of the idea of another round of federal stimulus checks to help combat the effects of inflation, which have seen Americans dealing with higher prices at the grocery store and the gas pump to name just a few. An initial survey in September from Pollfish found that 75% of respondents supported the idea of another round of checks going out, and a second one from Newsweek earlier this month found that 63% of Americans polled also felt the same way.

However, experts have continued to warn prior to the polls that while Americans may want more money, getting it will actually hurt more than help because putting more money into Americans' hands helps fuel the economy even more—by increasing demand on a still-strained supply chain, which in turn leads to even higher prices.

"Handing out dollars in an inflationary environment will only make matters worse by driving prices up further," Beth Akers, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in September.

"Stimulus checks would increase demand," Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard and former chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, told Forbes in July. "At the moment, however, supply is very constrained so any additional demand would just result in higher prices."

The warnings came as several states did, and continue to, dole out their own versions of stimulus checks, mostly funded through a surplus in state budgets.

Still, Americans may be growing increasingly more concerned, as attempts to tamper inflation through the Fed's raising interest rates have had little effect thus far. While it has caused the housing market to slow, prices still hold higher levels where Americans generally feel it the most—at grocery stores and the gas station.

Currently, gas prices are an average of $3.78 a gallon according to AAA, which is lower than both a week ago and a month ago and is also well below the average high in June of $5.01 a gallon, it is still much higher than average prices a year ago when gas sat at $3.41 per gallon. Meanwhile, the Consumer Price Index for October also saw increases on most items, with all items up 0.4% month-to-month, food up 0.6% overall, energy up 1.8% and all things outside of food and energy categories up 0.3%. year-over-year, everything is up 7.7%, food is up 10.9%, Energy is up 17.6% and everything outside of food and energy is up 6.3%.