Joe Biden’s worst nightmare as he prepares for 2024 is returning. For American voters, the combination of months of real income declines and skyrocketing expenditures caused by energy price hikes is a recipe for disaster.
The March data for the Consumer Price Index are in, and they are not good. The headline number came in at 0.1%, for an annual gain of 5%. Meanwhile, the less volatile core CPI increased by 0.4% annually, or 5.6% when excluding food and energy.
To put that in perspective, throughout Biden’s 26 months in office, Americans have had to deal with inflation of over 5% for 23 of those months.
The Democratic government already has a lot on its plate, and now gas prices are on the rise again. Rising demand and reductions by OPEC+ and Russia are placing a strain on consumers’ wallets throughout the United States.
👀This #CPI report is unfriendly.
— Harrison | Trader & Investor (@harrisonfromnyc) April 12, 2023
Both core and supercore were up 0.4% month-over-month, which is still too high.
Although headline inflation was weak due to energy, oil prices have increased by nearly 20% since mid-March, so that is old news and will be reversed in the next… https://t.co/jJyrio5d8k
The national average price of a gallon of normal petrol has increased by 8.8 cents in the last week, to $3.57.
According to BLS data, rising housing costs are driving overall inflation. Over the last year, the price of a roof over one’s head has increased by 8.3 percent, making it the “largest contributor” to the monthly rise.
The Biden administration will, of course, say that the most recent CPI data proves that their policies are succeeding. However, most Americans who must cope with rising inflation disagree with that assessment.
Everyone feels the sting of having to deal with increasing costs. Prices for transportation services increased by 13.9%, food by 8.5%, electricity by 10%, and gas by 5.5% during the last year.
A rising tide of rising energy prices, including gas prices, is washing over consumers. energy costs are expected to increase by an additional 10% in 2023 and 2024 as a result of the continued scarcity of natural gas, a vital component in energy production.
This is much lower than general inflation, which is expected to slow to about 4% by year’s end.
And this is really unfortunate for the Biden administration. Those signs in front of petrol stations are ubiquitous from coast to coast, and they all indicate steadily increasing costs. Together with the campaign signs of their opponents, they portend difficulties for the current Democratic government.
