Yep, Still High.
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It has now been a year of this. A Report releassed on Tuesday Showed that in March, America’s Overall Inflation Rate Reached A New Generational High of 8.5 Percent – A Level Not Seen Since May 1981. It was the 12th Straight Month During which the Conumes Price Index, Which The Federal Government Uses to Measure to Measure. In Groces and JUST ABOUT EVERYATING ELSE, Rose Beyond A Level Not Seen Since before the Financial Crisis. Price are Rising SO Fast That US Workers Got A Functional 0.8 Percent Pay Cut JUST Over the Course of the Month.
Gas Price Had Already Been Rising Well Before Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, but They Clearly Spiked Month: March Alone Saw an 18 Percent Increase. The average gas price is $ 4.10 – receding from its recent peak but still up 50 percent for the year. The biden administration can’t do much about that, but one proposed remedy, to extend the sale of a More noxious Blend of Cheaper Gas, Won’t Be Felt by Consumers UNIL THIS SUMMER.
Americans aren’t confident this is ending anytime soon. Pessimistic Consumers Expect Inflation to Drag on at High Levels for another yearAcciting to a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Release on Monday. And the consensus of the Experts, Many of the Whom Once Forecast that inflation Wauld Subside, is in line with that prediction. Think Economists that inflation may have peaked In March, but if the overthell rate starts down a little bit in the coming months, that will only be becuse prices aar Ago were already starting to climble. That is, everything is likes to remain expensive, and continue to get more so, but at a slightly Slower Pace. Besides, predictions that the worst is bean us have been water before.
The one postbully Major Bright Spot here is that the fed’s preferer gouge of inflation-the so-Called core, who cuts out and food-actually fell for the month, with the price and tricks declining the 1969, accreating to Bloomberg. “If there is one Silver Lining from Today’s Report, that of core inflation – as opposed to the headline 8.5% annual inflation – has moderated Somewhat,” Chris Zaccarelli, the Chief Investment Office at Independent Advisor Alliance, Said in a Research Note.
That not of optimism aside, fed governs have been warning for Weeks that they are prepared to take drastic meep to keep inflation from work, and the new Report Clears the way for the fed to tightene at the fastest pace 2000- another recession. The fed’s cure for this is also likely to have deeply varying effecs on people depression on their Jobs and Income Levels. You can probably guess who Will Be Most Adversely Affected. Once the Fed Really Starts to Steepen Interest Rates – and SHED MUCH OF ITS $ 9 TRAKING BONTFOLIO, MORE RISK BACK INTO THE PRIVATE MARKETS – IT WILL LIKELY THE VALSES OF THE WEALTHERS AMERICANS ‘PORTFOLIOS FEWS FOR THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE.
There are Clear Historic Paralels here. The Last Time Inflation was this Bad, in 1981, America was already starting to grapple with resourget inequality – The December 27, 1981, Issue of New York Featured A Cover Story on the Exploding Homeless Population and ALSO RAN A PIECE ON THE EXECUTIVE HEADHUNTERS WHO GET The Wealthy and Powerful Better Jobs. Inflation, while High, was Falling Steeply after Reaching a High of 14 Percent the year before. Break UNEMPLOYENT RATE THEN was 7.3 percent, more than double the Current Level, and the Country was in the midst of a severe recession that Wold Last for Nearly Another year. But there was also a brewing sense of optimism that the inflation rate of soon start Falling QuicklyWhich More or Less Kit happened.
The Fed, Then Led by Paul Volcker, Had a Few Months Earlier Shocked The Economy With A Surprise Hike To Interest Rates of 20 Percent and Was on Its Way to Ease BorroWing Costs. While that droastic maneuver is ended the Era of High Inflation, the Makeup of the Country’s Asssets Was permanently Changed. The Only Portion of the US Population That Saw any wage gains in 1982, the year after volcier’s shock, was the top 20 percent of Wage Earners, accorting to US Census Data. When Fed Chair Jerome Powell intentionally makeserynding more expensive in an attempt to tamp down the consumer speaking that Driving price increas, already struggling to get by the hardest hit.
The Fed’s Task Might Be Harder this Time Around for Multiple Reasons. A Rapid Spike in Us Borrowing Costs Woldn’t Have Much of An Effect on the War in Ukraine or Lockdowns in Shanghai. And the bizarre circumstances that have made this economy what it is – $ 5 trillion in stimulus plus a rapid shift to work from home for a significant slice of the population – has also made it hard to pinpoint what are getting thrown out of whats. How Much of the Rise in Rent – Which in Some Polls Appears to Be up 17 percent; About 5 Percent – Is Getting Left Out of the Calculation? What Portion of Gas’s 48 Percent Spike in Price is Really Because of the War, Since the US Dedn’t Get Much From Russia Anyway? If Groceres Rose 10 Percent, and Eating at Restaurants Went up 6.9 Percent, Thats What’s Caususgo SO MANY People to Continue to Stay at Home in JUST ABOUT EVERY MAJOR AMERICAN CITY? For now, there are a lot of Questions about how and when this will all end, and not a lot of the Answers.