by Jeff Cox
CNBC.com
Rising inflation in March didn’t deter consumers, who continued shopping at a more rapid pace than anticipated, the Commerce Department reported Monday.
Retail sales increased 0.7% for the month, considerably faster than the Dow Jones consensus forecast for a 0.3% rise though below the upwardly revised 0.9% in February, according to Census Bureau data that is adjusted for seasonality but not for inflation.
The consumer price index increased 0.4% in March, the Labor Department reported last week in data that also was higher than the Wall Street outlook. That means consumers more than kept up with the pace of inflation, which ran at a 3.5% annual rate for the month, below the 4% retail sales increase.
The middle class in the United States has been steadily shrinking, and the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us has grown to absurd proportions. But it wasn’t always this way. When I was growing up in the 1980s, it seemed like almost everyone was middle class. Of course there were wealthy people and poor people in the 1980s too, but the vast majority of the population was comfortably somewhere in the middle. Sadly, things have changed so much since that time. Today, most of the people that I know are struggling. According to a report that was just released, in all 50 states it now takes an income of more than $100,000 in order for a family of four to live “the American Dream”…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said Wednesday in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it weighs when and by how much to cut interest rates this year.
As inflation continues to tick up in spite of a higher interest rates, it may be time to take a second look at your investments. Stocks tumbled Wednesday as updated inflation data dimmed the chances for rate cuts in 2024, demonstrating how rising inflation can threaten your investment assets.
Social Security beneficiaries should expect a higher cost-of-living adjustment next year after the government reported a rise in inflation in March, according to an advocacy group.
On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack responded to a question on if spending in the Inflation Reduction Act will create inflationary pressure by stating that “One of the things that I think is missed about the IRA is the fact that it’s paced. It’s not as if all this money is all of a sudden showing up in the economy.”
American voters are growing more supportive of Joe Biden’s handling of the US economy, but remain unsettled by persistent inflation, especially rising petrol prices, according to a new Financial Times poll.
Can you imagine paying seven dollars for a gallon of gasoline? It could soon happen, because it appears that Israel is about to strike Iran, and that is likely to cause events in the Middle East to spiral completely out of control. Right now, approximately one-fifth of all oil used in the world goes through the Strait of Hormuz. An apocalyptic war in the region could potentially close the Strait of Hormuz until the conflict is resolved one way or the other. In addition, oil infrastructure could be destroyed in Iran and other nations in the Middle East as the fighting rages, and that could substantially reduce global oil production for an extended period of time. Our way of life depends on cheap oil, and so if a major regional war in the Middle East causes the price of oil to go skyrocketing that is going to deeply affect all of us.
On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated that it will be difficult to reach 2% inflation and one reason is “We have a trillion dollars of fiscal stimulus in the CHIPS Act, the Infrastructure Act, and the IRA.”
Iran’s response this weekend appeared relatively mild. Armstrong called it a “test attack.” What happens next? I’m told that in hand-to-hand combat, you “feint” (jab?) so you can discover what your opponent’s reaction will be. Perhaps when the Biden-Handlers are distracted by some other event, somewhere else in the world, the real attack will come. Another question: how bad is the (microclot-caused?) brainfog inside the IDF? Were they all force-vaxxed-and-boosted too, just like the US service members tragically were by Biden-Handler-Lloyd-Austin?