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    US Inflation Hit A New 40-Year High Last Month Of 8.6%

    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The costs of gas, food and other necessities jumped in May, raising inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs.

    Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from 12 months earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year surge of 8.3%, the Labor Department said Friday.

    On a month-to-month basis, prices jumped 1% from April to May, a steep rise from the 0.3% increase from March to April. Much higher gas prices were to blame for most of that increase.

    America’s rampant inflation is imposing severe pressures on families, forcing them to pay much more for food, gas and rent and reducing their ability to afford discretionary items, from haircuts to electronics. Lower-income Americans, in particular, are struggling because, on average, a larger proportion of their income is consumed by necessities.

    Economists do expect inflation to ease this year, though not by very much. Some analysts have forecast that the inflation gauge the government reported Friday — the consumer price index — may drop below 7% by year’s end. In March, the year-over-year CPI reached 8.5%, the highest such rate since 1982.

    High inflation has also forced the Federal Reserve into what will likely be the fastest series of interest rate hikes in three decades. By raising borrowing costs aggressively, the Fed hopes to cool spending and growth enough to curb inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. For the central bank, it will be a difficult balancing act.

    Surveys show that Americans see high inflation as the nation’s top problem and that President Joe Biden’s economic policies are to blame. Congressional Republicans are hammering Democrats on the issue in the run-up to midterm elections this fall.

    Thanks to Biden’s war on fossil fuels, rising gas prices are eroding the finances of millions of Americans. Prices at the pump are averaging nearly $5 a gallon nationally and edging closer to the inflation-adjusted record of about $5.40 reached in 2008.

    Research by the Bank of America Institute, which uses anonymous data from millions of their customers’ credit and debit card accounts, shows spending on gas eating up a larger share of consumers’ budgets and crowding out their ability to buy other items.

    For lower-income households — defined as those with incomes below $50,000 — spending on gas reached nearly 10% of all spending on credit and debit cards in the last week of May, the institute said in a report this week. That’s up from about 7.5% in February, a steep increase in such a short period.

    Spending by all the bank’s customers on long-lasting goods, like furniture, electronics and home improvement, has plunged from a year ago, the institute found. But their spending on plane tickets, hotels and entertainment has continued to rise.

    Economists have pointed to that shift in spending from goods to services as a trend that should help lower inflation by year’s end. But with wages rising steadily for many workers, prices are rising in services as well.


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    Jeff Schwartz
    Jeff Schwartz
    1 year ago

    The Libertarian Party of Ventura County says price inflation is just beginning. We are paying the price that was inevitable after a policy of two years of reckless spending, compounded by an additional 98 years of reckless spending, which first got started in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve. We Libertarians predicted well in advance that this massive inflation was going to be heading our way. Check out our video playlist about this topic at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgJ4ZyQMqU06D9iuT2jdOrWvqywKlGUnF

    Last edited 1 year ago by Jeff Schwartz
    Tommy
    1 year ago

    Joe Biden: Please resign NOW.

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