..................hitting a fresh 40-year high
Red-hot inflation is eroding American's wage gains and hurting Democrats in an election year

By Megan Henney - Inflation surged again in January, notching another four-decade high as strong consumer demand and pandemic-related supply-chain snarls fueled rapid price gains that wiped out the benefits of rising wages for most Americans.

The consumer price index rose 7.5% in January from a year ago, according to a new Labor Department report released Thursday, marking the fastest increase since February 1982, when inflation hit 7.6%. The CPI – which measures a bevy of goods ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents – jumped 0.6% in the one-month period from December.

Economists expected the index to show that prices surged 7.3% in January from the previous year and 0.5% on a monthly basis.

So-called core prices, which exclude more volatile measurements of food and energy, climbed 6% in January from the previous year – a sharp increase from December, when it rose 5.5%. It was the steepest 12-month increase since August 1982.

Rising inflation is eating away at strong wage gains that American workers have seen in recent months: Real average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% in January from the previous month, as the 0.6% inflation increase eroded the 0.7% total wage gain, according to the Labor Department. On an annual basis, real earnings actually declined 1.7% in January.

The inflation spike has been bad news for President Biden, who has seen his approval rating tumble as consumer prices rise. The White House has blamed the price spike on supply-chain bottlenecks and other pandemic-induced disruptions in the economy, while Republicans have pinned it on the president's massive spending agenda and his energy policies targeting the oil and gas industries.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/consumer-price-index-inflation-january-2022 


Thanks you President Biden and "Lets go Brandon"

Baw ha ha! You think Biden is calling the shots?

No, but he gets the credit. After all, he is the point of the spear.

Who saw this coming when the gov't shut everything down and started handing out money??

*raises hand*

Yup, a person would have to be really dumb to have not seen this coming.

We all knew this was coming. I wonder how many believe the inflation is good lie. I have greater concern about topping 30T in debt. Though the inflation is very concerning.

#FJB&FYFVFH!

I got money that I should not have received since my finances were not harmed when the economy locked up.
Pretty much fixed income, did not get let go from work, did not have business losses, etc.
But at least I know that both the current AND previous administrations sent those checks.
This was bipartisan dumb.

I was at a park when a mother sat beside and asked, "Which one's yours?" I looked at her and said, "I haven't decided yet."

Ditto!!!!!!!

Frank, if you recall... me, too.

If we look back in the Cbid rolodex, I was against it when it happened and Trump was the prez. Stoooopiiiiid.

Shawn, Ron...others too.
Sometimes reasonable people can disagree, and sometimes they can do what we do...agree.

I got the last one ($1,400 or something). Split it up and put in kid's accounts. Didn't get the first two (or was it three? Don't know why, prolly due to previous income for the first couple of rounds... didn't look into it).

I can kind of sympathize with folks that were put out from jobs to give them a helping hand on top of their unemployment - it's difficult to make ends meet for a family by only collecting unemployment and the lock downs didn't help in trying to get back into the workforce.

What REALLY stuck in my craw was folks living on welfare and other state sponsored free income who haven't worked for years (if ever) and never paid a dime into the system also got thousands of bucks in stimulus money on top of their their welfare. I remember overhearing many conversations of these leaches at Wally World complaining that some people got their stimulus money right away while others had to wait a couple weeks (waaa, waaa, waaa). Sometimes I'd butt in and let them know that Wally Word has openings that we can't fill. $17/hr to stock shelves and you can get hired on the spot. $15/hr to stand at the door and make sure nobody steals stuff (which, by the way, you can't do anything about except watch them walk on by and get a physical description, date, time, and best guestimate on what they took).

"Oh, no... I can't work... I'd lose my welfare, food stamps, and free health care."

We STILL have openings and short staffed in many areas. It doesn't take much physical labor to hang clothes on a hanger, stock the shelves in the pharmacy with bottles of vitamins and Tylenol, or Lego toys in the toy section. They have no problem taking them off the shelves and filling up a cart but it's too much "work" to put them on the shelves.

That is totally Franked up.

Prolly the same people that put the frozen chicken nuggets back on the canned soup shelves. Shelving be hard to do

I can't disagree.

And only on the middle shelf as they are driving around on their jazzy scooter…funny, but they can reach the Ho-Hos and Twinkies though.

I love the ones who go right down the middle of aisle. I'll put my cart out far enough that they can't get past me. When they angrily say move I point out to them I am at the side of the aisle, they are in the middle and if they want to get by, then they need to move to the side of the aisle just like everyone else.

Bucky - we incentivise bad behavior. It absolutely has got to stop.

Ever notice the politicians are always saying SS is gonna run out of money, but the welfare ain't? One group paid their dues... the other did not. Welfare should stop long before SS does.

^ +1

It won't really matter MACS, when the fiat regime collapses.