Prices just keep getting higher in Biden’s America, with inflation now reaching a 30-year high in October:
WSJ – U.S. inflation hit a three-decade high in October—rising at a 6.2% annual rate—as pandemic-related supply shortages and continued strength in consumer demand continued to push up prices.
The Labor Department said the consumer-price index, which measures what consumers pay for goods and services, increased at the fastest annual pace since 1990. Inflation also topped 5% for the fifth straight month.
Price increases were broad-based in October, with higher costs for new and used autos, energy, furniture, rent and medical care, the Labor Department said. Prices fell for airline fares and alcohol.
Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives, thinks the U.S. is entering a six-month period of unusually high inflation.
“I do think we’re moving into a new phase where inflation is broader and where things are going to get a little more intense,” she said. “Part of that reflects that [supply-chain] bottlenecks are not resolved going into the holiday season, when a lot of purchases get made, and that the economy is doing really well, so you have strong demand.”
Ms. Rosner-Warburton sees a shift under way in which a wider range of factors will push up inflation, as opposed to the previous months’ increases, which were driven disproportionately by skyrocketing vehicle prices and the reopening of services after Covid-19 vaccines became available. “Part of [this] still seems likely to be transitory, but maybe not all of it,” she said.
Joe Concha points out that Biden’s answer to this will be trillions in more spending…
CPI (Consumer Price Index) is actually worse than the expected: CPI Y/Y 6.6% vs. EST 5.8%
Team Biden will respond by saying that we need to pass trillions more in spending, which any sophomore will say only fuels inflation higher. There is no spin or speech that will fix this.
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) November 10, 2021
Concha is right. You can’t spend your way out of these kind of problems. I just hope we can keep Biden’s massive spending spree from passing until Republicans win back Congress next year.