The eye-watering 8.5 percent year-over-year inflation rate for July 2022 has been released. This is a little less than the 9.1% in June, which appears to have been the zenith of Joe Biden’s inflationary boom.
But although most regular people would grimace at an 8.5 percent price rise over what they were paying at this time last year, the press is hard at work celebrating.
Holy cow: There was ZERO inflation last month. That's the headline number, which is well below expectations of +0.2%.
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 10, 2022
Also a good core inflation reading: +0.3%, also below expectations of 0.5%.
Finally some good news on the inflation front. We've likely seen the inflation peak.
When a Democrat is in the White House, the mainstream media makes an absurd effort to continually portray any news as positive.
Yes, it is positive news. You can’t cheer when things get so bad that they have to go back down, though, when a government drives inflation up to 9.1 percent.
July was a huge inflation relief month for American consumers.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) August 10, 2022
Additionally, they are unable to escape the reality that inflation reached a record high of 5.4 percent in July 2021. We now have an increase of 8.5% on top of the 5.4% rise from the previous year. When compared to prices before Biden took office, it amounts to a significant real dollar rise for American families.
When that increase is broken down, it looks like this.
Price increases over last year:
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) August 10, 2022
Fuel oil: +75.6%
Gasoline: +44%
Gas utilities: +30.5%
Electricity: +15.2%
Food at home: +13%
New cars: +10.3%
Overall CPI: +8.5%
There was always going to be a slowdown in inflation. Although it could not just continue to rise indefinitely, it did so for a lot longer than anybody had anticipated, even the White House. Its current decline is no more a win than the drop in petrol prices from $5 to $4 per gallon. It matters where you start, and inflation is still quite high relative to when Biden took office.
Before anybody should be rejoicing, there is still much work to be done, and the press and White House’s attempts to celebrate this most recent inflation statistics simply serve to highlight how out of touch they are.