Your numbers are accurate, but you're manipulating the data. The point is that while inflation is trending downward, things still cost 3% more than they used to and not a single Congressional elected not the President and his administration have done a damn thing to claw back the windfall gains corporate profiteering engendered in the past two years. This was "greedflation" for the sole purpose of making the already morbidly wealthy even richer.
Yes, besides, there are other, better ways to control inflation, such as a windfall profits tax, price caps on items with fixed demand, like gas, medicine, utilities, etc., and boycotts.
Inflation may be tempering per economists and Fed adjustments may have had something to do with this, but... I’m a senior on a very fixed income and I am, for the first time since I retired in 2012, struggling economically. Other family and friends are in similar situations. For those of us trying to put still-WAY-too-expensive food on the table, there’s no end to increases in the price of meat (especially) and other food staples that go toward a healthy diet. BigFood is price gouging consumers.
In this instance, I wish you and your fellow economists would step out of your ivory towers, actually mingle with the great unwashed, go grocery shopping with them to see that too many who were minimally okay financially two or three years ago are now having to make difficult decisions between rent, food, clothing, etc.
I was also pleased when I heard the new data about inflation for June. At the same time, though the reporter had to mention that the Fed planned to raise interest rates one or two more times to get to the magic number. My immediate response to my apartment walls was "why?" Then I thought, we would probably have reached the magic 2% mark Powell set if the rich corporate price-gouging had been halted in its tracks. It wasn't and should be. However, Powell, the one-trick pony can't or won't even notice what those corporations have been doing along with their immense profits. I have to remember he is a Republican appointed by a Republican president, and kept by Biden in a moment of trying for bipartisanship. I would say (not that I have any pull whatsoever) that if Powell goes for raising the interest rate again, Democratic senators need to work to get him removed. I am disappointed, though with the willingness of the rest of the Fed to go along, knowing its impact on working families.
Inflation is similar to tax hikes, only the extra "revenue" goes to the private sector instead of our democratically elected representative government. Same with rising interest rates. When the private sector gets hungry, it has a feast. This year, the private sector has wiped out every penny of percentage increase I thought I was going to gain on my limited income, and then some.
The Fed is frustratingly insistent on raising interest rates, and one must wonder WHY that would be so? WHY are they so single-minded about this? It’s not for the good of the people, that’s for damned sure ...
The real driver of inflation, the part below the price gouging, is the Republican tax cuts that drive the deficit that the FED finances by printing money. The FED is run by financial elites of the corporate class, so they blame it on wage demands of poor people. Those cuts compound every tax year and total much more than the one-time Covid relief. Those tax cuts for the rich fund bribes for representatives, senators and judges, unlike the Covid relief that created job that generate tax revenues. We cannot solve our problems without dealing with the core issue, Republican tax cuts for the financial elites who fund (purchase) their party. It's long past time to start explaining this to the ignorant masses. It must be repeated ad nauseam until it sinks in.
You can't fix stupid at the FED. Fix the real cause of inflation, Republican spending on payoffs to their donors instead of investing in the economy and infrastructure that actually pays back. Fix the tax code, and the FED won't have the excuse to steal the gains of the working class like a common loan shark.
You write: "But it’s time to stop, because higher (interest) rates will slow the economy — and a slower economy will hurt lower-wage workers." What you did NOT say is: "The inflation rates have already hurt the lower-wage workers AND those on a fixed income." Everyone who is talking about the "wonderful economy" is acting as if the prices for daily necessities (ie, food, lodging, utilities, etc) have magically reset to pre-pandemic prices. This has not, and will not happen. So please take off your rose colored glasses. This is why Biden's approval rating is so low, people are STILL hurting. The truth is that the higher interest rates cut into large corporations' & billionaires' disgustingly inflated profit margins (greed-flation). Billionaires & mega-corporations want cheap money when borrowing, & little to no taxes being imposed on their profits, and to hell with the plight of the poor & middle class.
Your numbers are accurate, but you're manipulating the data. The point is that while inflation is trending downward, things still cost 3% more than they used to and not a single Congressional elected not the President and his administration have done a damn thing to claw back the windfall gains corporate profiteering engendered in the past two years. This was "greedflation" for the sole purpose of making the already morbidly wealthy even richer.
Yes!
And ASK! the FED to track and measure profit increases as closely as they do wage/salary increases for their contributions to price increases.
Yes, besides, there are other, better ways to control inflation, such as a windfall profits tax, price caps on items with fixed demand, like gas, medicine, utilities, etc., and boycotts.
Inflation may be tempering per economists and Fed adjustments may have had something to do with this, but... I’m a senior on a very fixed income and I am, for the first time since I retired in 2012, struggling economically. Other family and friends are in similar situations. For those of us trying to put still-WAY-too-expensive food on the table, there’s no end to increases in the price of meat (especially) and other food staples that go toward a healthy diet. BigFood is price gouging consumers.
In this instance, I wish you and your fellow economists would step out of your ivory towers, actually mingle with the great unwashed, go grocery shopping with them to see that too many who were minimally okay financially two or three years ago are now having to make difficult decisions between rent, food, clothing, etc.
Prices have stopped going up but they have not gone done. Instead of about $50 for groceries, the same mixture costs me $80!!!!
I was also pleased when I heard the new data about inflation for June. At the same time, though the reporter had to mention that the Fed planned to raise interest rates one or two more times to get to the magic number. My immediate response to my apartment walls was "why?" Then I thought, we would probably have reached the magic 2% mark Powell set if the rich corporate price-gouging had been halted in its tracks. It wasn't and should be. However, Powell, the one-trick pony can't or won't even notice what those corporations have been doing along with their immense profits. I have to remember he is a Republican appointed by a Republican president, and kept by Biden in a moment of trying for bipartisanship. I would say (not that I have any pull whatsoever) that if Powell goes for raising the interest rate again, Democratic senators need to work to get him removed. I am disappointed, though with the willingness of the rest of the Fed to go along, knowing its impact on working families.
Inflation is similar to tax hikes, only the extra "revenue" goes to the private sector instead of our democratically elected representative government. Same with rising interest rates. When the private sector gets hungry, it has a feast. This year, the private sector has wiped out every penny of percentage increase I thought I was going to gain on my limited income, and then some.
Please tell that damn Powell to stop raising rates and stop his and other FED members their obsession to bring inflation down to 2.5 rate.
The Fed is frustratingly insistent on raising interest rates, and one must wonder WHY that would be so? WHY are they so single-minded about this? It’s not for the good of the people, that’s for damned sure ...
My bank is still PAYING 0.1% interest for savings accounts. This doesn't even keep up with inflation.
...no further interest rate increases...they are not needed...the FED reacts often too late with the wrong outcome.
The real driver of inflation, the part below the price gouging, is the Republican tax cuts that drive the deficit that the FED finances by printing money. The FED is run by financial elites of the corporate class, so they blame it on wage demands of poor people. Those cuts compound every tax year and total much more than the one-time Covid relief. Those tax cuts for the rich fund bribes for representatives, senators and judges, unlike the Covid relief that created job that generate tax revenues. We cannot solve our problems without dealing with the core issue, Republican tax cuts for the financial elites who fund (purchase) their party. It's long past time to start explaining this to the ignorant masses. It must be repeated ad nauseam until it sinks in.
You can't fix stupid at the FED. Fix the real cause of inflation, Republican spending on payoffs to their donors instead of investing in the economy and infrastructure that actually pays back. Fix the tax code, and the FED won't have the excuse to steal the gains of the working class like a common loan shark.
And you have the corporate owned Larry Summers out there saying we have to go to 6%. He's on Bloomberg frequently saying the fed has to do more.
You are absolutely correct on this analysis. Not raising rates will be a positive move.
You write: "But it’s time to stop, because higher (interest) rates will slow the economy — and a slower economy will hurt lower-wage workers." What you did NOT say is: "The inflation rates have already hurt the lower-wage workers AND those on a fixed income." Everyone who is talking about the "wonderful economy" is acting as if the prices for daily necessities (ie, food, lodging, utilities, etc) have magically reset to pre-pandemic prices. This has not, and will not happen. So please take off your rose colored glasses. This is why Biden's approval rating is so low, people are STILL hurting. The truth is that the higher interest rates cut into large corporations' & billionaires' disgustingly inflated profit margins (greed-flation). Billionaires & mega-corporations want cheap money when borrowing, & little to no taxes being imposed on their profits, and to hell with the plight of the poor & middle class.
I hope the Fed reads your blog and listens to you - or if not, that a fellow citizen of theirs tells them about this.