Overall CPI now at 8.6% as consumer prices soar, causing pain for Americans’ pocketbooks.
After two years of economic devastation during the COVID-19 pandemic, billions of dollars doled out by Congress, and questionable economic decisions by the White House, the financial woes continue across the U.S. with a new 40-year high inflation rate reported this morning.
The new Consumer Price Index (CPI) is up 8.6% since last year, impacting nearly every market with increased prices. The following sectors are up considerably:
- Gas: +48.7%
- Fuel Oil: +106.7%
- Meat, Poultry, &Fish: +13.1%
- Milk: +15.9%
- Eggs: +32.3%
- Coffee: +15.3%
- Used Cars: +16.1%
- Airline Fares: +37.8%
On top of the increased CPI rates, Real Average Hourly Earnings are down -3%.
RELATED: NFIB announces small business expectations for better conditions at 48-Year low
“Recently we conducted an industry specific survey regarding challenges, we got back that the construction and manufacturing industries are especially feeling the impact of inflation pressures. Additionally, optimism in these industries also varies based the degree to which inflation, staffing and supply chain disruptions are impacting them,” said Senior State Director for the NFIB in Mississippi, Dawn McVea.
Additionally, 32% of these businesses site inflation as a continued problem. This is the highest reporting since the fourth quarter of 1980.
While the Federal Reserve is taking action by increasing interest rates to offset inflation, the Biden Administration released their plan to aid in lowering rates on May 10.
The Administration largely blamed Vladmir Putin and Congressional Republicans for slow efforts to address the economic disaster. The plan includes actions such as a higher tax on corporations and the wealthy, building more than 1 million additional affordable homes through tax credits, and investing federal resources to create more competition in meat-processing as well as providing over one billion dollars in relief to small businesses and agricultural workers hurt by COVID-19.
In response to the Biden Administration’s plan and the increased inflation reported today, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker did not hold back his criticism of the President.
“President Biden recently painted a rosy picture of the U.S. economy. Yet inflation hit a staggering 8.6 percent last month,” Wicker tweeted. “Americans are hurting and POTUS doesn’t seem to get it.”
President Biden recently painted a rosy picture of the U.S. economy.
Yet inflation hit a staggering 8.6 percent last month.
Americans are hurting and @POTUS doesn’t seem to get it.
— Senator Roger Wicker (@SenatorWicker) June 10, 2022
Sarah Ulmer
