Posted on 02/10/2022 6:02:35 AM PST by Red Badger
SPONSORED: MISUNDERSTOOD: THE HUAWEI STORY TheHill.com Annual inflation reaches 7.5 percent, highest rate since February 1982 BY SYLVAN LANE - 02/10/22 08:37 AM EST 161 Share to Facebook Share to Twitter
Just In... House Oversight Committee launches probe into boxes of Trump presidential records HOUSE — 2M 41S AGO Ohio, California senators make Super Bowl wager IN THE KNOW — 16M 24S AGO UK's Johnson: Next few days 'most dangerous' in Russia, Ukraine standoff INTERNATIONAL — 17M 43S AGO Annual inflation reaches 7.5 percent, highest rate since February 1982 FINANCE — 21M 50S AGO VIEW ALL Consumer prices rose 7.5 percent annually by the end of January, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department, the fastest rate since February 1982.
The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), which tracks inflation, rose on an annual basis for the sixth consecutive month and above the 7.2-percent increase projected by a consensus of economists.
Consumer prices also rose 0.6 percent in January, the same rate as in December, after falling for three consecutive months.
Without food and energy prices, the CPI rose 6 percent annually, the fastest rate since August 1982.
The U.S. has faced high inflation since mid-2021 as a surprisingly strong rebound from the coronavirus recession also kindled price increases. While the U.S. economy added more than 6 million jobs last year, grew 5.7 percent and saw consumer spending return to pre-pandemic levels, the rush of demand collided with severe supply and labor shortages, shipping bottlenecks and other pandemic-related constraints.
Price hikes for food, electricity, and shelter contributed the most to January's inflation jump, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. Food prices rose 0.9 percent in January, nearly twice December's gain of 0.5 percent, and energy prices also rose 0.9 percent as higher electricity rates offset declines in gasoline and natural gas prices.
Many economists, including top White House and Federal Reserve officials, expected inflation to cool off over the summer as the pandemic faded and more Americans returned to work. But the persistence of high inflation has posed significant political and policy challenges for both the administration and the central bank.
President Biden and Democratic lawmakers have struggled to sell the strength of the recovery to voters, who are increasingly dissatisfied with their handling of the economy, according to recent polls. The rising costs of food, fuel, and other consumer staples has wiped out rapid wage gains for many workers — along with the political benefit.
Food prices are 7 percent higher, gas prices are 40 percent higher, and energy prices in general are 27 percent higher than in January 2021, according to the Labor Department.
The Fed has also laid the groundwork to raise interest rates several times this year as inflation rises well above their annual average target of 2 percent. The bank all but formally confirmed it would raise interest rates in March from the current baseline, which was set near zero as the pandemic wracked the global economy in 2020.
Most Republican lawmakers and an array of economists had urged the Fed to begin hiking interest rates last year, though Fed officials resisted over concerns it would limit the return of workers to the labor force. The Fed, however, pivoted sharply in December as inflation continued to spike and pose potential threats to future job gains.
The January inflation figures will keep the Fed firmly on its path to hike interest rates, though higher borrowing costs may have little impact on the shipping bottlenecks, COVID-19 containment measures in other countries, and labor shortages driving prices higher.
Updated at 8:54 a.m.
I DOUBT THEY WILL FOLLOW THROUGH.
It would be costly beyond their means to do so.
It’s probably just a placating measure for their constituents to make it look like they are doing something.....................
“They only want your debt, not your deposits.”
I have no debt so they’re out of luck.
A 12.6% increase....................
Good!
The difference between normal economic cycles and this is the cornestone of this idocy is the ridiculous “green energy” religion of the US-European Media-politcal class.
Go back to Trump era energy polcies and all this spirling out of control inflation flattens out.
Same here. My retirement savings is melting like the Wicked Witch of the West in a rainstorm........................
So Biden is going to make Carter look like genius
The Carter Years will look like a fond remembrance compared to what the Biden fiasco is engendering..............
meanwhile real inflation is more like 17% or 18%.
Put food, fuel and housing back in like they used to be when calculating the inflation rate. NOW what does it look like?
7.5% is the best they could lie it down to without getting laughed out the door.......................
And 1982 was the down hill side of the high point of inflation in that round.
The inflation rate right now is on the up hill side of this event.
18 months ago you could easily build a house around here for $150 a square foot. That has since just about doubled.
Gasoline has doubled.
Good thing we all have electric cars now.......................
I live in a fairly nice apartment in the suburbs. I know several older single women who live here who viscerally hate Trump and who voted for Biden. They are all shocked and angry at the rent increases announced but after looking around have noticed the rent and housing costs have gone up everywhere. I’ve taken great delight in making little comments about how groceries, gas, the rent, everything has gone up under Biden. They’re not ready to admit voting for him was a mistake but they’re definitely hurting.
I’ll buy a house in the outer outer suburbs now that I’m working from home permanently....and after the crazy housing market here cools down a little.
Hating mean tweets just got very expensive.
;-)
That is more believable.
“Elections have consequences.” - B. Obama...............
older single women ....... named Karen?.............
Right you are.
They wont include many every day expenses.
The only difference between Communism and Democrats is the spelling.
For all the Trump loathers who voted for this senile husk I recall Reagan’s …”Are you better off?”
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