Remember when they said inflation was going to be “transitory?”
Lol. About that… the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) is in from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it shows inflation remaining at very high levels in September. Prices rose 8.2% from September 2021 to September 2022, the data show. Prices rose 0.4% just in the month of September.
Some goods saw particularly acute year-over-year price spikes, like food (11.2%), energy (19.8%), new vehicles (9.4%), used cars (7.2%), and more.
Annual inflation via BLS just out:
42.9% airline fares
33.1% utility gas
30.5% eggs
18.2% gasoline
17.2% chicken
15.7% coffee
15.2% milk
14.7% bread
10.1% furniture
9.2% vegetables
8.2% all items
8.2% fruit
8.1% ham
7.6% women apparel
7.2% used cars
6.7% rent
3.7% men apparel— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) October 13, 2022
Oh, and thanks to all this inflation, Americans’ real wages—wages accounting for real purchasing power—remain in decline. Real average weekly earnings decreased by 3.8% from September 2021 to September 2022, according to today’s data update.
This is… not good.
And it’s not Vladimir Putin’s fault, no matter how many times the White House insists otherwise. Nor is it the fault of “greedy” corporations, who’ve always been just as greedy as they are today.
As the September CPI reminds us, inflation is a stealth tax on the American public. And it’s happening because the federal government spent trillions of dollars we didn’t have and printed money like crazy. Don’t forget those root causes when you’re paying more at the pump or the grocery store.
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