Tipsheet

Liberal Economist Warns Democrats: Sorry, the Latest Inflation Numbers Provide Little Comfort

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  May 12, 2022 10:25 AM

A former top economic adviser to President Obama checked under the hood on the April inflation data released yesterday, and he's concerned about what he sees.  Jason Furman started his analysis by comparing the headlines from major newspapers, noting that all three are accurate, though they paint slightly different pictures.  Emphasis is everything:


He notes that while the overall number looks like it eased, so-called 'core' inflation ran hotter last month, which he says is a serious red flag:


Another key point about why he envisions pretty rough inflation through the remainder of this year, based on the data:


He adds that "the inflation story to worry about" is "core services inflation," which has "increased for four straight months."  He points out that core US inflation remains roughly double core [European] inflation' -- and "real average hourly earnings fell a little further in April" in the US.  This ongoing slide, he continues, is "the fastest decline in 40 years."  The Washington Post's Heather Long contributes her bottom lines on the April numbers:


"Painfully high for awhile" is not music to Democrats' ears less than six months out from an election, especially as they're perhaps realizing that the electorate may not share their abortion zealotry the way they were expecting.  I'll remind you that the White House recently suggested that nobody could have envisioned or predicted the acute inflation we are experiencing, yet many people have responded that a top Democratic economist did precisely that in early 2021.  Meanwhile, an adrift President Biden engaged in a blamefest on Tuesday, refusing to take any responsibility for America's inflation crisis.  This was quite a line:

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Not only do voters not believe that's true (polls show that Americans correctly blame Biden policies as one of the drivers of the problem), some of his own party's experts also reject the premise.  We recently told you about another prominent Obama alumnus who pointed to the Democrats' strictly partisan $2 trillion spending binge early in Biden's presidency as an inflationary policy error of historic proportions.  For my overall reaction to Biden's weak, predictable, tendentious, and thoroughly unpersuasive inflation speech earlier in the week, watch this.  Meanwhile with inflation raging, what are Senate Democrats up to this week?  Trying and failing to pass a barbaric abortion law, and endorsing the doxxing and harassment of Supreme Court justices at their homes:


Do the top two Senate Democrats talk much?