The March inflation numbers are in, and they are………not good.
America's inflation problem didn't abate in March. Prices kept creeping up, hitting a fresh 40-year high, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Tuesday.
The Consumer Price Index rose 8.5% for the year ended in March, not adjusted for seasonal swings. That outpaced February's elevated reading of 7.9% and marked a level not seen since December 1981 when the CPI stood at 8.9%. Tuesday's March data was also slightly higher than the 8.4% economists had predicted.
Most of the March increase was driven by a jump in gasoline and food prices, which rose as the Ukraine conflict threw global commodities markets for a loop, as well as an upswing in housing costs.
Last month alone, US gas prices rose by more than 18%. Year-over-year, the price of gas soared by 48%.
I don’t have time for a full post on this subject, but did want to touch on it and start a conversation about it. If you’re one of my new readers (or not!), check out my previous articles about inflation:
Edit: But first, a response to the administration blaming Putin:
Edit: OK, here are the articles! A basic overview:
Specifically about Biden’s policies:
How to protect yourself:
An adorable kitty picture:
Of course what's really worrying is that they did not use the same metrics to calculate the CPI during Carter's reign. If they used *those* metrics, we'd be well into the 20% range. It's actually much worse than they portray.
Rarely do I blame the economy on a president, of either side. Shifts in the economy tend to take time and don't have their seeds in immediate events, but are the culmination of choices of both parties over decades along with a few "acts of god" here and there. The 2008 financial crisis wasn't George Bush's fault, for example. It started under Clinton and a Republican Congress and the loosening of banking laws. So blaming Bush was unfair (and I am no fan of Bush, but I already have plenty else to blame him for).
This time, however, we can directly blame Biden and the Democrats. Their wild spending, the near starvation of the economy of workers, the supply chain issues, the vaccine mandates and COVID hysteria, the big-business friendly COVID policies (at the expense of little business), and the war in Ukraine, which Biden could have stopped if he had only encourage Zelensky to agree to neutrality, all have contributed to this. So, yes, this is very much Biden's problem. (Of course, I'm using "Biden" as shorthand for the crazies handling Biden, as Biden is capable of no decision more taxing than butterscotch or vanilla, but you get the idea.)
It’s worth it to get rid of Poot’n and save Ukraine - Brandon says so, so it must be true. It’s all Poot’n’s fault anyway so once we change the regime - oops didn’t mean to say that - it will all go back to normal, and saving the Planet. It’s what a plurality of Americans voted for - I am a sympathy free zone.