The Labor Department’s inflation index figures for May were the highest since 1981, while the price of a gallon of gas hit $5 per gallon for the first time.
Summary
The Labor Department’s inflation index figures for May were the highest since 1981, while the price of a gallon of gas hit $5 per gallon for the first time.
- Prices rose 1% from April to May, faster than the March-to-April jump of 0.3%. Consumer prices shot up 8.6% in May compared to May 2021, the highest rate of increase since 1981.
- Rents surged at the highest rate since 1990. Natural gas prices jumped up by 8.0%, the most since October 2005. Food and electricity costs grew by 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively.
- Friday’s inflation bombshell reverberated throughout Wall Street. The S&P 500 dropped 2.9%, the “ninth losing week in the last 10,” while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 2.7% and the Nasdaq composite fell by 3.5%.
- AAA reported the average price for a gallon of gasoline hit $5 for the first time ever on Saturday.
- Americans tend to drive more in the summer months, which along with the war in Ukraine, limits on refinery capacity, and the Biden administration’s energy policies contribute to the skyrocketing price of gas.
- President Joe Biden vowed once again to tackle inflation, even though “the president’s policies, his deals with the private sector, regulatory actions and public jawboning have failed so far to stop prices from marching upward.”
- Inflation, which Biden once insisted was transitory, would last “for a while” and Americans would have “to live with it for a while,” the President said at a Beverly Hills Democratic fundraising event.
- The New York Times wrote that the “dream of the open road” is colliding with “the reality of $5-a-gallon gas.” One reporter took a New York-to-New Orleans road trip, documenting inflation’s effects along their journey.
- The Washington Post reported surging fuel prices – a “huge economic and political albatross” – are “compounding intractable political challenges for the Biden administration,” leaving the Biden team with few options and bemoaning the fact that they “can’t catch a break.”
- Politico noted economists expect prices and inflation to fall in the coming months, even though economists were surprised by May’s inflation spike.
- Fox Business noted gas prices are now $0.63 higher than just a month ago and have surged by $2.00 in just one year.
- National Review blasted record-high gas prices as “Biden’s $5 gallon,” blaming the president’s policies for “locking in high gas prices in the future” because Democratic energy policy “would make expensive gasoline normal” – by design.
- The Washington Examiner covered the Biden administration’s desperate attempts to put a positive spin on the economy ahead of the midterms. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even insisted, “What we’re trying to say is that the economy is in a better place than it has been historically.”
On Your Radar
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Biden unveils migration plan, capping Americas summit roiled by division (Reuters)
What the January 6 Committee hearing left out (National Review)
The January 6 commission’s biggest reveal (Commentary)
Why a Dem dream candidate can’t touch Rubio in Florida (POLITICO)
A would-be school invader in Alabama failed when the doors were locked and the police weren’t cowards (The Federalist)
Justin Bieber shares he has Ramsay Hunt syndrome (NBC News)
Biden says he owns 2 shotguns, and dismisses the idea of arming teachers (FOX News)
Student-led March for Our Lives rally pushes for action on gun violence (CNN)
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
