On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” CNN Business Reporter Matt Egan stated that the high inflation “is being driven by this perfect storm of COVID, the war in Ukraine, and unprecedented stimulus from Washington.”
Egan stated, “I mean, we haven’t seen 9% inflation since November of 1981, back when Ronald Reagan was wrapping up his first year in the White House. I mean, many Americans have literally never experienced anything like this, and it’s really happening across the board. I mean, gasoline prices are up 60% over the past year. Food prices rising at the fastest clip in four decades, and shelter, which is one of the biggest costs for families, going up sharply. Some items are experiencing the biggest price spikes on record. Everything from beer and haircuts, to cleaning products, and butter, all of them going up by the most since the government started tracking. Now, high inflation is being driven by this perfect storm of COVID, the war in Ukraine, and unprecedented stimulus from Washington. And it means that paychecks are just not going as far for families, and that is very painful. I think the good news is that gasoline prices have started to come down, so that should help here. The bad news is that today’s inflation report is going to keep the pressure on the Federal Reserve to slam the brakes on the economy, and Dana, the risk of course is that the Fed overdoes it and ends up slowing the economy right into a recession.”
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