Bidenflation Comes for the Fourth
It’s Independence Day in the year 2024. That means it’s time to gather with family, fire up those grills and smokers, and talk about inflation. My tongue is only lightly pressing in my cheek in this case. After all, it is an election year, and the number one issue for voters (by a mile) is the economy.
Although Bidenflation has slowed, it’s still higher than the Federal Reserve’s two percent target. This has been the norm for Biden’s entire term, and thus we are seeing the highest prices on record for many items you’ll be serving your family this year.
For example, according to Consumer Affairs, the price of 1.33 pounds of ground beef this year is $8.45. This means your hamburger patties are going to be about 50 percent more expensive this year than they were in 2019 (assuming you don’t cheap out on your guests with shrinkflation).
Disposable plates are up over 80 percent during that time. Ketchup is up about 52 percent.
The one that hits closest to home for me, however, is the cost of a 12-pack of canned pop. This year, it will cost you about $9.18 to secure a case of diet soda (or in my household, enough for 1.5 people). This is up from $5.53 in 2021, Joe Biden’s first Independence Day as president. That is an increase of a whopping two-thirds. Out here in California, we also have a 5-cent per can recycling deposit and a hefty sales tax; so, my family and I can count on paying close to a buck per can.
Yowza!
The American Farm Bureau reported that this year will be the most expensive Fourth of July barbecues in American history. This isn’t because Americans are feeling particularly rosy about the economy and want to splurge. As my colleague John Carney reported last week, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell in June. The drop was driven by an increasingly negative near-term assessment for future business conditions and income.
Stagflation Summer
Wallet Hub reported in June that three in five Americans think that Bidenflation is affecting their July Fourth plans. Specifically, 60 percent of Americans are planning to spend less money this Independence Day than in years past. Yes, despite the fact that things are so much more expensive, Americans still intend to spend less.
This gives us at the Breitbart Business Digest heavy stagflation vibes.
(Government) Job Openings Surge
U.S. job openings were released on Tuesday for May, coming in at 8.1 million from 7.9 million in April, the Labor Department said. The establishment media was quick to tout the “warmness” of the labor market. In fact, CNN says it’s “red-hot” (that’s a bit much). But, the devil is in the details. And the details here suggest that it’s the government that is responsible for the big numbers.
An estimated 80 percent of the estimated 221,000 new job openings were government jobs. Government job openings are near a record high.
What’s more, these numbers appear higher than they might be because they follow a substantial downward revision from last month. ZeroHedge notes that this is the fourteenth time these numbers have been revised down in 17 months, “something which statisticians would normally call ‘bullshit.’”
President Joe Biden on September 1, 2023, at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz via Flickr)
So, this appears to be yet another example of Joe Biden and his administration trying to manufacture another news cycle by giving away taxpayer funds. It is the same pattern you will find with student debt forgiveness, amnesties for illegal aliens, and green energy policies that we will see between now and election day.
Powell Stays the Course
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke from Portugal on Tuesday and said, “We’ve made quite a bit of progress in bringing inflation back down to our target.” But!… “We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward two percent before we start the process of reducing or loosening policy.”
This is not an earth-shattering take, as reflected in the markets being flat as of mid-day.
Happy Independence Day!
We’ll be off tomorrow and Thursday smoking and grilling and celebrating our founding, but we’ll be back on Friday for an analysis of the monthly jobs data. See you then and Happy Independence Day.