Flash! The Labor Dept's latest inflation report is a record jump in wholesale prices: Inflation at the wholesale level rose 8.6% in September compared to a year ago, the largest advance since the 12-month change was first calculated in 2010.
Each month the economic news gets worse and worse for American families struggling under the weight of Joe Biden’s radical Leftist economic policies. And having a Socialist majority in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is only making matters worse.
Katie Pavlich reported in a must-read article for Townhall, the Consumer Price Index jumped in September by 5.4 percent compared to September 2020, the fastest rate in 13 years and higher than economists predicted.
"Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 5.4 percent before seasonal adjustment. The indexes for food and shelter rose in September and together contributed more than half of the monthly all items seasonally adjusted increase. The index for food rose 0.9 percent, with the index for food at home increasing 1.2 percent. The energy index increased 1.3 percent, with the gasoline index rising 1.2 percent," the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. "The all items index rose 5.4 percent for the 12 months ending September, compared to a 5.3-percent rise for the period ending August."
For months, noted Ms. Pavlich, the Biden White House has attempted to play down rising inflation, but nearly everything Americans buy and need is more expensive.
Here’s a quick list of just those items Katie Pavlich documented hitting double digit price increases:
Rental cars +43% over last Sept
Gas 42%
Used cars 24%
Bacon 19%
Hotels 18%
Beef 18%
Pork 13%
Eggs 13%
TVs 13%
Kids' shoes 12%
Furniture 11%
The political ramifications of inflation, particularly in gasoline and other energy sources, have gotten so bad for Biden and the Democrats that the Biden White House has been speaking with U.S. oil and gas producers in recent days about helping to bring down rising fuel costs, according to two sources familiar with the matter cited in a Reuters report.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail reported the cost of gas in the United States hit a seven-year high this week. AAA said the national average price for a gallon reached $3.27.
AP reported natural gas in the United States, for example, has climbed to its highest price since 2014 and is up roughly 90% over the last year. The wholesale price of heating oil, meanwhile, has more than doubled in the last 12 months.
Heating oil prices, meanwhile, are tied closely to the price of crude oil, which has climbed more than 60% this year. Homes affected by those increases are primarily in the Northeast, although the percentage of homes using heating oil has dropped to 18% from 27% over the past decade.
Nearly 22% of Americans had to reduce or forego expenses for basic necessities, such as medicine or food, to pay an energy bill in at least one of the last 12 months, according to a September survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
However, the reports do not indicate that the Biden Democrats have any idea that it is their policies that are causing the price spikes.
And as prices have risen, pay and employment prospects have not kept pace.
AP reported pay raises for most workers are so far failing to keep up with inflation, and Yahoo reporting U.S. employers unexpectedly hired at a slower pace in September than in August.
The U.S. economy added only 194,000 jobs in September, far below the pace necessary to rebuild the economy after the devastation of government-imposed lockdowns and COVID fearmongering sent millions to the unemployment line.
September marked the second-straight month in which the US economy added far fewer jobs than expected. Jobs growth slowed down dramatically in August.
There was also an unexpected drop in the labor force participation rate, which ticked down to 61.6% from August's 61.7% making Joe Biden’s claim that unemployment decreased a hollow boast, since fewer Americans were actually looking for and finding jobs.
The Job Creators Network Foundation recently released a poll showing inflation and consumer spending are weighing on the minds of entrepreneurs.
It surveyed 500 small business owners and found optimism about the economy declining. Only 32 percent of small business owners consider the current economy excellent or good with 68 percent rating it fair or poor.
Even the Biden apologists at CNN have found themselves forced to report on the economic disaster Biden’s policies have wrought. CNN’s September poll found 62% say that economic conditions in the US are poor, up from 45% in April and nearly as high as the pandemic-era peak of 65% reached in May 2020. The poll also found 69% of Americans say things in the country today are going badly, with 54% of Independent voters panning Biden’s performance.
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