More evidence that Joe Biden has done little or nothing to help Americans whose lives are in distress over rampant inflation became apparent as a stunning report shows that inflation has spiked in a way that has not been seen in over 40 years!
Despite the meager efforts the President and Fed have made to curb inflation, it is still on a skyrocketing trajectory. The most recent Labor Department report indicated that the consumer price index (CPI) increased 1.3 percent from May to June and was up a whopping 9.1 percent over June of last year — the highest single year’s rise since 1981.
There’s already been an outcry from lawmakers about the latest numbers.
“Today’s consumer price inflation reading of 9.1 percent is a painful reminder that Americans’ paychecks continue to be strained by the high inflation that was fueled by Democrats’ untargeted and partisan spending spree. As the economy faces runaway inflation and rising odds of a recession and stagflation, raising taxes, killing jobs, smothering wages, and imposing price controls makes no sense,” leading Senate Finance Committee Republican Mike Crapo (Idaho) said in a statement.
On the other side of the aisle, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was quick to point the “not me” finger and put the lion’s share of the blame on the tense geopolitical situation following the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the major driver of inflation.
In a tweet, she said, “As we face Putin’s price hike at the pump and in the grocery aisle, nearly every member of the House GOP voted NO on a package of bipartisan bills that lower the costs of food and fuel for hard-working families,” referring to legislation advanced earlier this year.
What the Report Had to Say By the Numbers
Energy prices rose 7.5 percent from May to June and contributed nearly half of the overall increase, with the price of gasoline going up by 11.2 percent, according to the Labor Department.
Annually, energy prices are up 41 percent, with energy commodities up more than 60 percent.
Food prices are up more than 10 percent on the year, and the price of groceries — or the “food-at-home” index — has risen more than 12 percent.
All of this means that we can expect even bigger interest rate hikes from the Fed than anticipated. Rate hikes from the Fed determine the rates at which banks and other financial institutions can borrow money from each other.
Raising those rates translates down into more expensive credit markets for consumers who make payments with financing plans for things like mortgages, auto loans, and credit card interest fees.
Since the Fed started raising interest rates in March, the S&P 500 stock index is down almost 9 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 6.5 percent during the same period and is down almost 16 percent since the beginning of the year.
Numbers like these all make the looming fears of a recession more likely.
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