From The Mises Institute, October 13:
We're Getting Poorer: Price Inflation Grew Faster than Wages Again in September
The federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released new price inflation data today, and according to the report, September was yet another month of soaring inflation. According to the BLS, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose 8.2 percent year over year during September, before seasonal adjustment. That’s the nineteenth month in a row of inflation above the Fed’s arbitrary 2 percent inflation target, and it’s seven months in a row of price inflation above 8 percent.
Month-over-month inflation rose as well, with the CPI rising 0.2 percent from August to September. September’s month-over-month growth also shows some acceleration in monthly price inflation growth. Month-to-month growth had been approximately zero in July and August following nineteenth months of monthly growth.
September’s increase keeps price inflation near forty-year highs. June’s year-over-year increase of 9 percent was the largest CPI increase since 1981, but September’s increase percent still keeps price inflation well within the same range as the inflationary years of the early 1980s. September’s increase was the seventh-largest increase in forty years.
The ongoing price increases largely reflect price growth in food, energy, transportation, and shelter. In other words, the prices of essentials all saw big increases in August over the previous year.
For example, “food at home”—i.e., grocery bills—was up 13.0 percent in September over the previous year. Gasoline continued to be up, rising 18.2 percent year over year, while new vehicles were up 9.4 percent. Shelter registered one of the more mild increases, with a rise of “only” 6.6 percent according to the BLS.
This is bad news for the Biden administration, as this is the final price inflation report before the November elections. The administration has repeatedly attempted to downplay the relentless increases to the cost of living being inflicted on Americans after years of deficit spending, which has helped fuel inflationary monetary policy.
On Thursday, for example, the Biden attempted to claim that price inflation increase “2 percent” by slicing and dicing the numbers into an annualized rate composed of only the past three months.
In a written statement, the president insisted “Today’s report shows some progress in the fight against higher prices, even as we have more work to do…. Inflation over the last three months has averaged 2%, at an annualized rate”
In the real world, however, Americans have lost an immense amount of purchasing power. That purchasing power is lost forever unless there is sizable price deflation in coming years, and the deflation-phobic central bank is sure to intervene to make sure that doesn’t happen.
In terms of real earnings, this has been devastating for many wage earners. According to the BLS, average hourly earnings in September came in at $32.40. That’s an increase of 4.92 percent, year over year. This might be good news were it not for the fact that price inflation was up 8.2 percent during the same period....
....MUCH MORE
This was the source of the handy little bar graph of real personal income seen in Thursday's"Class Warfare"
