White House on High Inflation Around Transport, Cars: We Have ‘Junk Fee Agenda,’ Corporations Need to Lower Prices

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “The Exchange,” White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein responded to a question on high inflation around cars and transportation by stating that we have to push down on costs and “That also taps into his junk fee agenda, and also, look, if you’re a corporation and your input costs are coming down because of the savings that we’ve seen, you need to pass those along to the consumer.”

Host Kelly Evans asked, “[The] number one category for inflation over the past year, car insurance, up 20%, transportation inflation up 10%, car repair inflation up 7%, rent, homeowner, still in there, are we going to see the president going after Flo?”

Bernstein answered, “Well, he has been really emphatic that the most important two words when it comes to our economic agenda as we head into ’24, [are] lower costs. Certainly, maintain the gains we’ve had, build on the progress, but continue to punch at some of those costs, some of which you mentioned, others of which have come down nicely. Obviously, gas is critical, and gas was north of $5 a gallon in June of ’22. This morning, it was $3.08 a gallon, below $3 in 30 states. If you look at dairy, if you look at eggs — which, by the way, did tick up, more avian flu in December — but they’re down 25% over the past year. Dairy is down, milk, bread, airfares, TVs, used cars over the last year, although they ticked up again in December. So, we need to continue putting downward pressure on costs, not just inflation, but costs. That also taps into his junk fee agenda, and also, look, if you’re a corporation and your input costs are coming down because of the savings that we’ve seen, you need to pass those along to the consumer. He’ll continue to talk about that, as well.”

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