Biden's latest push to take control of the inflation narrative

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Axios

4 hours ago


The Biden administration released a memo to its allies outlining its actions to combat rising costs — and blaming Republicans for blocking its efforts.

Why it matters: It's an attempt to tell Americans that the White House is focused on bringing prices down at a time when voters are unhappy with the economy, and hold the president responsible for inflation.

"President Biden's top economic priorities are fighting inflation and lowering costs for the American people," writes White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates. "Standing up to corporate price gouging is at the core of that fight."

Catch up fast: The latest inflation figures show that prices rose 3.4% over the last year — much lower than the scorching levels seen in 2022 but still too high for comfort.

Meanwhile, the economy overall is on solid footing — particularly the labor market. The unemployment rate has been under 4% for 27 straight months.

Between the lines: Biden generally doesn't get much credit for economic strength. Former President Trump polls better on his handling of the economy.

The administration has struggled with its messaging around inflation — they know it's making Americans feel bad, and that there's not much they can do about it before the election, as Axios' Hans Nichols wrote recently.

They argue inflation would get worse under Trump — "top economists warn that MAGAnomics would set off an 'Inflation bomb,'" Bates writes.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2024/05/20/biden-inflation-us-economy

[benfranklin1776]

1. Good! But also...

He and his allies should keep hammering home what is primarily responsible-unrepentant, unrestrained corporate greed, and highlight the myriad specific ways he is combatting that, like his aggressive enforcement of anti monopoly and price fixing laws, limiting costs for life saving drugs and expanding the supply of affordable housing. And, of course, his monumental transformative commitment to unleashing the power of American economy by making it one driven by clean energy. That transformation is threatening the economic stranglehold the cash engorged elephant in the room-the oil industry-has on each American’s life. The President and his allies need to constantly remind people Trump OPENLY SOLICITED A BRIBE from them, and Trump’s congressional and judicial sycophants are wholly devoted to stripping each and every economic protection each American currently enjoys. He can clearly say, “My record has demonstrated I’ve fought these interests for you and your quality of life and that as President in my second term I’ll keep fighting them until each and every American has genuine economic security and the accompanying freedom to truly live their lives to the fullest capacity, something every person deserves. My opponent is fighting to sell you, your family and your family’s future to the highest bidder. I’ve got your back, he and his gang are the servants of those who want to stab you in the back.”

[Alliepoo]

2. Yep. Everything you said.

[cstanleytech]

3. It's pretty well known that the driving force for the inflation are the wealthy.

They control virtually all the resources as well as the companies that produce and sale the goods.
Blaming workers for wanting fair compensation for their work is just a smokescreen to cover the fact that corporations which the wealthy own are still increasing their profits over and above the rate of inflation.

[progree]

4. For perspective: month-by-month inflation since January 2021

Last edited Fri May 24, 2024, 07:39 AM - Edit history (5)

Graph from an earlier BumRushDaShow posting:


The following rolling 3 month average for the last 13 months, and the corresponding month-by-month (they come together in the same Imgur or I would have left off the month-by-month as repetitious of the above). I see the 3-month as a way of smoothing out the month to month jumpiness, but it too has its big up and downs over short time frames. And in this particular case it is not particularly helpful, but generally it helps a lot in most of the inflation graphs IMHO.



To see the month-by-month, and rolling averages of 2 months, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, one can visit the BLS data & graph page for the CPI at https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0

Then click "More Formatting Options" on the upper right and check whatever checkboxes you want (no harm in checking them all, they show up all on the same page one after the other):

1-month percent change, 2-month percent change, 3-month percent change, 6-month percent change, and 12-month percent change

You might want to change the years to something narrower than the default 2014 to 2024 to zoom in on the years of most interest. Or broaden it or whatever.

The CPI tables and graphs shown on the above CUSR0000SA0 link are different for the 1-month and 3-month percent changes than for the second set of graphs shown above because the latter are annualized numbers (for easy comparability to the Fed's 2% goal and to each other), whereas the CUSR0000SA0, and the top graph of this posting, are not annualized. But the shape will be the same for the 13-month time period covered by the 2nd set of graphs.

The core CPI is at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

All the graphs shown on this page and all links are to seasonally adjusted numbers.

All the latest inflation graphs (CPI, PCE, PPI wholesale) with links are at https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143240761#post3

The Fed's favorite inflation series, the PCE, particularly the core PCE (for projecting FUTURE inflation) are coming out Friday May 31.

Edited to Add 5/23 9:00pm ET
CPI and Core CPI from January 2023 thru April 2024, 3 month moving average from BLS webpages
The regular CPI followed by the Core CPI
The regular CPI https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
The core CPI is at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

See above instructions about how to get this view - Click on "More Formatting Options" and then on the page that appears, check the 3 month checkbox and change the date range from 2023 to present

The regular CPI is this one right below --vvv

The Core CPI is this one right above --^^^

From this 16 months perspective, the regular CPI (the upper graph of the two graphs) looks like it is basically going sideways with a lot of zigging and zagging, ending with a 3 month uptick and one month plateauing.

While the core CPI (the lower graph) appears on a definite upward trajectory over the 7 months beginning in August, and a little easing in the last month. .
(As always, the Fed prefers the core measures for projecting FUTURE inflation).

I did the regular CPI and the core CPI in separate windows and then placed the windows one above the other. I don't know how to do any better. I tried the Erase tool in both Windows Snip and in Imgur to erase the top part of my browser that was shown in between the 2 graphs.

I had no luck with Imgur's erase tool. But with the Windows Snip tool I finally figured out to use the Pen tool, right click on that and choose the color white and make the size somewhat larger -- and then apply the resulting thick white pen as a sort-of-an-eraser.