We’ve now survived about 18 months of the Biden presidency, thankfully, but there are some valid uncertainties about what the future holds on that front.
Things have been particularly fraught when it comes to the economy, as Joe Biden’s inability to reign in runaway inflation has caused a massive monetary spiral to take place. The consumer price index is out of control, gas prices are just now coming down from an all-time high, and there are serious concerns about how Americans are going to afford every day items.
Prices that consumers pay for a variety of goods and services rose 8.5% in July from a year ago, a slowing pace from the previous month due largely to a drop in gasoline prices.
On a monthly basis, prices were flat as energy prices broadly declined 4.6% and gasoline fell 7.7%. That offset a 1.1% monthly gain in food prices and a 0.5% increase in shelter costs.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting headline CPI to increase 8.7% on an annual basis and 0.2% monthly.
And that wasn’t all:
The jump in the food index put the 12-month increase to 10.9%, the fastest pace since May 1979. Butter is up 26.4% over the past year, eggs have surged 38% and coffee is up more than 20%.
Despite the monthly drop in the energy index, electricity prices rose 1.6% and were up 15.2% from a year ago. The energy index rose 32.9% from a year ago.
With the midterm elections just a few measly months away, this sort of economic pressure is likely to weigh heavy on the minds of American voters, and could spell trouble for the Democrats in that contest.
