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The federal government’s latest inflationary estimate came in hotter than expected, bolstering critics of U.S. president Joe Biden and placing the debate over the health of America’s economy back at the forefront of the national conversation.
According to the latest release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the consumer price index – which measures how much Americans are paying on various goods and services – climbed 0.4 percent during the month of February. That was its fourth consecutive uptick and the highest monthly increase since August.
Over the past year, prices are up 3.2 percent.
Since Biden took office, prices are up a staggering 18.6 percent.
Has your paycheck increased by that same amount over the past three years? If not, then you are essentially being taxed for the deluge of deficit spending coming out of Washington, D.C.
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Prior to the data being released, former U.S. president and 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump ripped the inflationary pressures which continue to be felt across the economy – a.k.a. “Bidenomics.”
“People are going through hell,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernan on Monday, accusing his successor of sending “energy prices through the roof and food prices through the roof.”
“The middle class in our country has been routed and the middle class largely built our country and they have been treated very, very badly,” Trump added.
Trump neglected to point out his own contributions to the inflationary pressure – or his failure while in office to target tax relief to the middle class – choosing to lay the blame for all of that on the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nobody, nobody wins with Covid,” Trump told Kernan.
Biden did his best to put a positive spin on the numbers.
(Click to View)
“My top economic priority is lowering costs and today’s report shows we continue to make progress on that front,” a statement released by the White House noted. “Inflation is down two-thirds from its peak and annual core inflation is the lowest since May 2021. Wages are rising faster than prices over the last year and since the pandemic. Prices for key household purchases like gas, milk, eggs, and appliances are lower than a year ago.”
As I often note in covering this issue, inflation is not necessarily a bad thing. Higher incomes have to be created from someplace … and if the price of goods and services remains stagnant, then the paychecks of the workers producing those goods and providing those services is likely to remain stagnant as well.
Generally speaking, the optimum rate of inflation is around two percent annually.
For much of the administration of former president Barack Obama, inflation came in below this optimal level. The annual rate of inflation for 2016 averaged just 1.26 percent, while in 2015 it clocked in at a meager 0.12 percent. The two percent threshold was also missed in 2014 (1.62 percent) and 2013 (1.47 percent).
Under Trump, inflation hit its targets in 2017 (2.1 percent) and 2018 (2.4 percent) but dipped just below the target rate in 2019 (1.8 percent). In 2020, inflation registered just 1.2 percent thanks in large part to the Covid-19 shutdown. Under Biden and congressional Democrats, inflation is humming along at more than three times its optimum level.
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THE DATA …
(BLS)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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5 comments
Controlling inflation in a BOOMING economy is tough, and our inflation rate is the lowest in the industrialized world by a lot. In fact, the only way we have ever done it is to hurt the economy by raising interest rates, which is what we have done, and the trend is down. We will reach our goals. You Trumpers like to mention that inflation is up 18% (or if you are Trump you lie and say 50%) without also mentioning that hourly wages have increased by 15% (a rate of increase not seen since before the Reagan administration). So net inflation has only been about 3%.
In the meantime, under Biden we have a record stock market, record low unemployment, GDP is up significantly over the Trump years, productivity is up over the Trump years, the net worth of the average American is up, we are producing more oil than at any time in the history of our country, plus we are building a renewable energy infrastructure; for the first time in a very long time economic growth is higher than the Chinese, our trade deficit with China is down, manufacturing is returning to the US at a record pace, and annual deficits are down from the Trump years.
On the foreign policy front, NATO is stronger than ever. Our alliances with Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the Philippines are stronger than they have been in decades. Almost all of our allies have increased defense spending. China’s economy is faltering. Russia’s economy is in shambles. The Russian Army is down 300,000 men in the last two years, it has depleted its tank force, its Black Sea fleet has been decimated, its air force is afraid to fly planes over Ukraine because they are being shot down every time they do, and despite the best efforts of Republicans, we have stalled Putins goal of re-establishing the evil Russian Empire.
I am willing to live with a little inflation. Because yes, I am definitely better off than I was under Trump, and that does not even take into account not dealing with the constant fear that Trump would sell us out to some foreign government who gave him money, sell our military secrets to the Russians or the Saudi’s, or declare Martial Law and start killing Americans.
Jack Hinson, you are confounding and confusing the Trumpers with actual facts. Remember, what Napoleon said of the Bourbons is also applicable to the Trumpers: “ Learned nothing, forgot nothing.”
Wait until Trump imposes his proposal to increase tariffs for China to 50% and all imports to 10% on top of another multi trillion tax cut for the über rich.
Perhaps a better discussion would be on price gouging by the US corps whose CEO’s are seeing unprecedented bonuses and raise hikes. From 1978 to 2022, the typical CEO’s compensation increased by 1,209% while the average worker’s salary grew by….15%. Also, another discussion I’d like to see is on the GOP’s newfound interest in raiding Social Security and raising the retirement age to 70 while eliminating SS altogether. They are itching to get their hands on that money for some reason and it’s not to “pay down the debt” because as we saw in the last GOP administration, they don’t give a damn about the “debt ceiling” until they’re not the party in control. What are their true plans for that money? To fund another unwinnable war in the mideast? Or just loot the treasury on their way out the door?
Inflation, debt slavery, the exorbitant rise beyond just inflation in things critical to a thriving middle class – health care, housing, education – it’s all targeted to maximize exploitation of the working class.
Democrats will turn a blind eye to the woes of workers to pursue power, but then push the status quo. Eventually this will cost them elections to Republicans, who have no qualms hacking away anything that benefits labor.
There is no left party in America.