The press is doing all it can to make Biden look bad with regard to inflation. The way they report the numbers has changed from the traditional way, so that no matter what happens, it will look bad until after the November election.
It used to be that the B.L.S. collected numbers and released a monthly rate of inflation, comparing each month to the previous month. Then that monthly number was multiplied by 12 to create an annualized number. So a 0.4% rate was an annualized rate of 4.8%. It changed every month and could be somewhat volatile.
Now, though, we’re getting headlines about where prices stand compared to one year ago. The supply chain crunch, especially the Los Angeles port crisis, happened late last year, creating shortages that raised some prices. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February raised prices for oil and food precipitously. So from last summer until this summer, factors other than things under the Federal Reserve’s control forced up prices. And so the year over year rate is high, hitting around 9% in July and now reported at 8.3% for August. If you go deep into the NYTimes article about “stubbornly high” inflation, you see that the actual rate for August was 0.1%.
The Fed, in turn, uses the higher reported rates as an excuse to raise interest rates. Higher rates benefit the rich, after all, and banksters, and the Republican-leaning Fed works for the banks at least as much as for the public. So they’re going to clamp down and try to create a recession on time for the election, using these year-over-year rates as an excuse. But the actual inflation is essentially over, as it was a one-time thing. Dishonest reporting just makes it look bad. As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, and that’s what we’re hearing about inflation.