Inflation in L.A. Falls ‘Disproportionately on the Working Class’

President Joe Biden came to Los Angeles to take a victory lap Friday, claiming — falsely — that “core inflation” had declined, as the effects of 8.6% inflation fell “disproportionately on the working class” in the L.A. metro area, according to a local economist.

As Breitbart News reported, Biden delivered a speech at the port facility, where a cargo crisis last fall threatened supply chains and raised inflationary pressures. He claimed, wrongly, that inflation is down if gas and food prices are excluded:

“Inflation outside of energy and food, what the economists call core inflation, moderated the last two months,” Biden said. “Not enough, but it moderated, it’s come down and we need it to come down much more quickly.”

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But month-to-month core inflation in May was actually at 0.6 percent, the same percentage as it was in April.

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Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the high rate of inflation.

Despite Biden’s claims, the burden of inflation is one that even traditionally Democratic voters in L.A. cannot ignore. The L.A. Times reported:

The Biden administration has been under pressure to reassure Americans that inflation won’t reel out of control. The most recent numbers seemed to upend that hope, with prices rising for goods across the board, led by sharp jumps in the costs of energy and groceries.

In a metro area as large as Los Angeles with an economy driven by low-wage work, the effects of inflation — especially gas prices — fall disproportionately on the working class, said Leo Feler, a senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast.

Annual inflation in the L.A. metro area, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties, clocked in at 8% in May. San Diego saw 8.3%, while the Riverside metro area, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties, saw a 9.4% inflation rate.

Biden touted the government’s efforts to ease the cargo crisis by threatening to penalize companies that left shipping containers on the docks. However, these were simply replaced by outgoing containers that were not removed for months.

And though Biden promised to move the ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach to 24/7 operations, they could not find enough workers willing to work the overnight shifts. The cargo crunch did ease somewhat, helped by China’s coronavirus lockdowns, which slowed shipping traffic to and from the manufacturing giant. But a new surge is expected soon.

On Friday, Biden blamed concentration in the shipping industry for supply chain problems and inflation. He also reiterated his claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible, though inflation began before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.