Our economy is collapsing and families are hurting as the politicians and media put on a theater production in D.C.
Inflation accelerated further in May, with prices rising 8.6% from a year ago for the fastest increase since December 1981, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of goods and services prices, increased even more than the 8.3% Dow Jones estimate. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 6%, slightly higher than the 5.9% estimate.
On a monthly basis, headline CPI was up 1% while core rose 0.6%, compared to respective estimates of 0.7% and 0.5%.
Surging shelter, gasoline and food prices all contributed to the increase.
Energy prices broadly rose 3.9% from a month ago, bringing the annual gain to 34.6%. Within the category, fuel oil posted a 16.9% monthly gain, pushing the 12-month surge to 106.7%.
Shelter costs, which account for about a one-third weighting on the CPI, rose 0.6% for the month and now are 5.5% higher from a year ago.
Finally, food costs climbed another 1.2% in May, bringing the year-over-year gain to 10.1%.
Sure looks like they’ve gone Winchester.
Is it really considered “inflation” when the price hikes result in record-setting amounts of profits?
“Corporate pretax profits surged 25% year over year to $2.81 trillion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Wednesday. That’s the largest annual increase since 1976, according to the Federal Reserve.
When taxes are factored in, last year’s corporate profit increases were even more of an outlier. They soared 37% year over year, more than any other time since the Fed began tracking profits in 1948.”
https://fortune.com/2022/03/31/us-companies-record-profits-2021-price-hikes-inflation/
“The historically high profit margins in the economic recovery from the pandemic sit very uneasily with explanations of recent inflation based purely on macroeconomic overheating. Evidence from the past 40 years suggests strongly that profit margins should shrink and the share of corporate sector income going to labor compensation (or the labor share of income) should rise as unemployment falls and the economy heats up. The fact that the exact opposite pattern has happened so far in the recovery should cast much doubt on inflation expectations rooted simply in claims of macroeconomic overheating.”
“In short, the rise in inflation has not been driven by anything that looks like an overheating labor market—instead it has been driven by higher corporate profit margins and supply-chain bottlenecks.”
https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
“‘When corporate profits are at their highest levels in nearly 50 years and companies are showering their shareholders with billions in new benefits over the last year, it raises serious questions whether industries like retail have had to hike prices on families to such excessive degrees,’ Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/retail-price-gouging-lowes-amazon-target-accountable-us/
Lots of folks like to blame Big Gov’t for all of their problems, but actually it is the invisible hand of Big Business that is slapping us across the face this time….and they are gleefully laughing at us while doing so…
Yes. Yes, it is. Inflation is simply the description of a general increase in prices and a devaluation of money. It does not define a cause.
Typical liberal points from Penquin which are clearly laughable.
You do realize that the profits are also subject to Bidenflation. Their is worthless because of Bidenflation.
And in this case, it was almost entirely Senile and his puppeteers are to blame.
Harassing oil drilling companies, harrassing the oil companies, screwing up the ports and trucking, increasing the regulations, the stupidity of alternative energy etc….
Pennie swings and misses, just like the D’s in Washington DC. Sure would be nice if you could come recognize why your little articles are comparing only the laat year… Recall that the economy was shut down and stimulus checks were being mailed to everyone. Of course that comparison will be near record breaking.
If only you had dug a little deeper. The one article you linked had a nice graph for previous years and it sure looks like if we could scrub the plandemic, that increase would have been linear from 16 and on.
Do keep trying Pennie, you’ve got a great oat on the back for effort.
People simply call it “inflation” when they want to subtly blame the gov’t for all of the price increases. Other people invoke the name of the President while describing inflation because they either honestly beleive he has complete control over all aspects of the economy and/or they place the concerns/goals of their personal political party ahead of the overall good of our country. And then there are those people who call other people silly names & stomp their feet when faced with unpleasant facts&figures.
*shrugs shouders*
Takes all kinds, eh?
BONUS: There are also people who make outrageous & silly claims….such as how record-setting amounts of profit is actually considered “worthless”…..when they are simply trolling for attention.
>because they either honestly beleive he has complete control over all aspects of the economy
There’s another one of those damned Strawman arguments from Penny.
Penquin wins the discussion by pointing out the pesky profits the multinationals are enjoying .
Any responses justifying those profits other than they will be “ worthless “?
I
I would agree that price gouging by corporations is an important reason for the spiraling economy, and that the reasons for that are myriad, with Biden policies only several large cogs in a very large machine. To blame Dems exclusively is as foolhardy as to leave their policies blameless…
As much as I do not respect Trump, I do fully believe that under his second term we would have comparatively little inflation today. Policies that would have pushed people to get back to work as soon as possible, that encouraged new oil fields keeping supply healthy, and not forcing wage increases through supply and demand that damaged supply chains and gave manufacturers a great excuse to raise prices and blame Gov’t, etc. would have the economy in a different place than it is today. Without socialist policies, it is completely foolhardy to expect that big corps would accept lower profits when they have the option to raise prices globally and blame Covid and Government policies to cover their lost revenue (and kill even more small businesses to raise their market share).