The Patriot Post® · It's Still Inflation and the Economy, Stupid
It’s time for your friendly reminder that when the pace of inflation slows from 9.1% in June to 8.3% in August, that doesn’t mean things are getting cheaper. It just means they’re getting even more expensive a tiny bit more slowly.
In fact, we’ll reprise the role of Debbie Downer to point out that the primary reason the inflation rate increase slowed for the second straight month is that gas prices moderated a bit from record highs in June. Average gas prices dropped from $5.02 in June to $3.71 today; diesel is $5.00 after reaching $5.82. The bad news is that core inflation, which excludes energy, rose 6.3% in August — significantly higher than 5.9% in both June and July — and August monthly inflation rose at double July’s pace.
“Food costs increased 11.4% from a year ago, the most since 1979,” according to Bloomberg. “Electricity prices rose 15.8% from 2021, the most since 1981.”
Stock markets are a measure of where businesses and investors think the economy is going, and the market is headed for a big drop after today’s report.
The Federal Reserve meets again next week and will likely raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage points yet again, which will cause more economic slowdown after two straight quarters of GDP decline — technically a recession. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell admits that rate increases will “bring some pain to households and businesses.” You don’t say.
Who doesn’t say? Joe Biden and the rest of his crack team of advisors, who are sorely lacking in real economic experience. In fact, Team Biden-Harris just put out an Economic Blueprint that’s chock-full of false claims about the amazing feats of economic stewardship achieved by this administration. That includes lowering gas prices by $1.20 … without mentioning that his policies raised them $2.63 first.
According to the White House, “Through bold and decisive action, President Biden’s economic agenda laid the foundation for the strongest and most equitable economic recovery in modern history.”
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are set to speak today celebrating the passage of the grossly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act. Spending trillions of dollars over the last two years is what caused inflation in the first place. Spending even more on that law will make things worse, just as continuing the spending binge with a trillion dollars on student loans and more again on other leftist priorities will add to the tax of inflation.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen offered a similar false boast last week: “By any traditional metric, we have experienced one of the quickest economic recoveries in our modern history.”
Traditional metrics like two straight quarters of economic decline? Like wages failing to keep up with inflation? Like more households going into debt just to buy groceries? For all the administration’s yelping about “equity,” today’s economic conditions hit lower-income folks far harder.
“Americans are finally feeling better about the economy,” reads Saturday’s Washington Post headline. Who are you gonna believe — Biden and his media water carriers or your lyin’ bank account?
Finally, back to the reality of inflation being a tax, Terence Jeffrey reports, “Americans in 2021 once again spent more on average on taxes than they did on food, clothing and health care combined.” Is it progress that Bidenflation might reverse that in 2022?
With all this economic “good news,” it’s no wonder Biden, Democrats, and their propagandists would rather make up stuff or just talk about the Bad Orange Man. They certainly can’t be honest about how much they’re costing American families.