Biggest 12-month US inflation increase since 1981, data shows
Americans looking for relief from the country’s inflation spike did not find it in June, the latest data from the Labor Department confirmed.
The consumer price index rose 9.1% last month compared to June 2021, its biggest 12-month increase since the same period in November 1981. It even accelerated compared to May, rising 1.3% compared to that month’s one percent increase.
Dig deeper into the numbers and you’ll see a story of frustration and financial pain for people across the country. Grocery prices were up one percent compared to May and 10.4% over the prior 12 months. Gasoline prices have increased 59.9% over the past 12 months and 11.2% in June alone.
Washington’s inflation fighter, the Federal Reserve, may respond to this report with another big interest rate increase later in July to cut into the demand drivers of inflation, as they did at their meeting last month. Biden has already seen inflation wreck his approval rating, but can hope that if Saudi Arabia agrees to bring more oil onto the market, the price of gasoline, an important contributor to inflation, will decline. Meanwhile, there’s evidence the gas price surge is already receding:
29 days straight of declining #gasprices! We’re now down 40c/gal from the peak with Americans spending $150 million LESS on gasoline today alone vs June 14. National average $4.634/gal with over 10,000 stations at $3.99 or less. We will fall under $4.60 by the weekend.
— Patrick De Haan ⛽️? (@GasBuddyGuy) July 13, 2022
Key events:
Another sentence has been handed down against a January 6 rioter, in this case a Maryland man who pled guilty to charges related to striking a police officer with a lacrosse stick that had a Confederate battle flag attached.
He was ordered to serve five months in prison, according to the AP:
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also sentenced David Alan Blair, to 18 months of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution, said William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia.
Federal prosecutors recommended sentencing Blair to eight months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Blair’s attorney, Terrell Roberts III, asked for a sentence of probation.
Blair, 27, left his home in Clarksburg, Maryland, and started driving to Washington, D.C., after the riot erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Shortly before 6 p.m., Blair encountered a line of Metropolitan Police Department officers on the Capitol’s West Lawn and refused to heed their commands to leave the area, prosecutors said.
A police officer’s body camera captured Blair walking in front of the police line and yelling, “Hell naw. Quit backing up. Don’t be scared. We’re Americans.”
Blair was arrested after he pushed his lacrosse stick against an officer’s chest.
The officer responded to the push by striking Blair three times in the head with a baton, drawing blood and giving him a concussion, according to Blair’s attorney.
The race for the Senate seat in Georgia currently occupied by Democrat Raphael Warnock is among those considered pivotal to deciding who controls the chamber following November’s midterm elections, and the incumbent seems to be prevailing, at least when it comes to money.
As the Associated Press reports, Warnock raised $17.2 million in the second quarter running from April through June, much more than the $6.2 million Republican Herschel Walker brought in.
The dueling Senate campaign numbers underlined two truths. Georgia is again going to be one of the most expensive races to run for office in 2022, and Democrats are building a strong fundraising advantage.
Like Warnock, Democrat Stacey Abrams heavily outraised incumbent Republican Brian Kemp in the race for governor, collecting almost $50 million compared to the $31 million Kemp has brought in over a longer period. Abrams and Warnock plan to run closely linked campaigns, echoing many of the same themes.
Warnock is one of several Democratic Senate incumbents in swing states who is trying to cling to their seat amid President Joe Biden’s deep unpopularity. Republicans had long dominated statewide races until Georgia helped elect Biden to the presidency and enabled Democrats to control the Senate by electing Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff in a January 2021 runoff.
Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed an executive order preventing women who travel to Michigan for an abortion from being extradited to other states where seeking the procedure is illegal.
Here’s how she described the order, which also protects abortion providers in the state from extradition:
I will stand up for all women, even if their local and statewide leaders refuse to. Michigan must remain a place where a person’s basic rights are preserved. In this existential moment for fundamental rights, it is incumbent on every elected official who believes that health—not politics—should guide medical decisions to take bold action.
Whitmer said the move was in response to attempts by Republican lawmakers to pass laws criminalizing out-of-state travel by women seeking abortions. Her order was similar to one made by Colorado’s Democratic governor Jared Polis, who banned state agencies from cooperating with investigations into abortions by other states.
Adam Gabbatt
Republican Senator Josh Hawley is a sponsor of legislation to keep transgender children out of sports, and at a hearing yesterday, one of his critics took the opportunity to tell him what she thought of his questions, as The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports:
Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri, was accused of being transphobic by a law professor on Tuesday, at a hearing on the consequences of the supreme court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the ruling which guaranteed the right to abortion.
During the judiciary committee hearing, Hawley, who has previously co-sponsored a bill which would prevent transgender children from competing in sports, questioned Khiara Bridges, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Law who was invited to testify on reproductive rights.
“You’ve referred to ‘people with a capacity for pregnancy’,” he said. “Would that be women?”
Elsewhere in Congress, Punchbowl News has reported a strong comment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a meeting with Democrats this morning:
PELOSI in closed House Dem caucus meeting this am: “The Republicans are not capable of governing a democracy”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 13, 2022
She also took a stab at forecasting when peak US inflation might be reached, a notoriously difficult thing to nail down:
Senator Joe Manchin, a crucial swing vote for Democrats hoping to get any major legislation through Congress before the end of the year, has issued a statement warning against big spending plans at a time of high inflation.
It reads in part:
“For more than a year, leaders in Washington have ignored the serious concerns raised by myself and others about the rising cost of inflation. While Washington seems to now understand this reality, it is time for us to work together to get unnecessary spending under control, produce more energy at home and take more active and serious steps to address this record inflation that now poses a clear and present danger to our economy. No matter what spending aspirations some in Congress may have, it is clear to anyone who visits a grocery store or a gas station that we cannot add any more fuel to this inflation fire.”
Consider it something of a warning shot as Democrats look to pass a major spending package in what could be their final months controlling the House and Senate. Manchin cited his concerns about inflation last year when he torpedoed Build Back Better, a spending plan proposed by Joe Biden to address a range of Democratic priorities, including fighting climate change, which ultimately collapsed after months of negotiations. In recent days, details have leaked out about a renewed effort to reach an agreement that can pass with only Democrats’ votes via the reconciliation process. But with his statement, the West Virginia senator, who has a deep involvement in the coal industry, has reminded the party’s leaders that he won’t be an easy man to convince.
Martin Pengelly
Planning a coup isn’t for amateurs, ok? That was the argument Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton decided to make after yesterday’s January 6 committee hearing, as Martin Pengelly reports:
John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump and before that ambassador to the United Nations under George W Bush, said on Tuesday he helped plan coup attempts in other countries.
Speaking to CNN after the day’s January 6 committee hearing, Bolton said it was wrong to describe Trump’s attempt to stay in power after the 2020 election as a coup.
He said: “While nothing Donald Trump did after the election, in connection with the lie about the election fraud, none of it is defensible, it’s also a mistake as some people have said including on the committee, the commentators that somehow this was a carefully planned coup d’etat to the constitution.
Details are trickling out about the January 6 committee’s next hearing, which The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports is set to take place Thursday of next week during the prime-time TV hour:
New: Sources tell me that the Jan. 6 committee is currently expected to do the final hearing of this “series” of hearings — how Trump did nothing during the 187mins of the Capitol attack — next week Thursday in prime time, confirming @alivitali
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 12, 2022
Committee member Stephanie Murphy gave a hint of what to expect in an interview with MSNBC this morning:
1/6 committee member Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) says the next hearing will focus on Donald Trump’s inaction during the 187-minute Capitol insurrection:
“The next hearing will be about … what the president did, and, more importantly, what he didn’t do.” pic.twitter.com/KPqNbRCje8
— The Recount (@therecount) July 13, 2022
Inflation numbers ‘out-of-date’, don’t reflect price decreases, Biden says
The latest inflation figures are certainly bad, but President Biden has just issued a statement arguing that the situation is better than it appears because gas prices have declined since the data was collected. Here’s the meat of his argument:
While today’s headline inflation reading is unacceptably high, it is also out-of-date. Energy alone comprised nearly half of the monthly increase in inflation. Today’s data does not reflect the full impact of nearly 30 days of decreases in gas prices, that have reduced the price at the pump by about 40 cents since mid-June. Those savings are providing important breathing room for American families. And, other commodities like wheat have fallen sharply since this report.
Importantly, today’s report shows that what economists call annual “core inflation” came down for the third month in a row, and is the first month since last year where the annual “core” inflation rate is below six percent.
Jason Furman, a former top economic advisor to Democratic president Barack Obama might take issue with Biden’s characterization of core inflation. He shared several thoughts about the latest report on Twitter, which he described as “brutal” overall:
The 12-month core CPI fell from 6.0% in the year through May to 5.9% in the year through June. But don’t get too excited–this is probably not telling you what you think it is.
All it says is that core inflation in the month of June-22 was slightly lower than it was in June-21.
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) July 13, 2022
It is more relevant to look at one month changes or, if you’re worried about noise, three month changes. In June core CPI increased at a nearly 9% annual rate. Over the last three months it was about an 8% annual rate. Those are both up. pic.twitter.com/Ee9dwMRgsj
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) July 13, 2022
This may best sum up the damage done by the inflation wave to Americans:
David Smith
If you missed it, The Guardian’s David Smith has a look at what happened during yesterday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, which painted a distressing picture of former president Donald Trump’s willingness to resort to violence following his 2020 election loss:
“We settle our differences at the ballot box.”
Bennie Thompson, chairman of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, emphasised this article of faith in his opening remarks on Tuesday.
But what followed was a three-hour story about how American democracy, like a rickety old house, creaked and bent and struggled to hold itself together during a thunderstorm of political violence.
There was the tale of an Oval Office meeting that almost ended in fisticuffs. There was testimony from a former true believer in the “big lie” who joined the rampage at the Capitol. There were predictions that if Trump runs again, no one will be safe.
Biggest 12-month US inflation increase since 1981, data shows
Americans looking for relief from the country’s inflation spike did not find it in June, the latest data from the Labor Department confirmed.
The consumer price index rose 9.1% last month compared to June 2021, its biggest 12-month increase since the same period in November 1981. It even accelerated compared to May, rising 1.3% compared to that month’s one percent increase.
Dig deeper into the numbers and you’ll see a story of frustration and financial pain for people across the country. Grocery prices were up one percent compared to May and 10.4% over the prior 12 months. Gasoline prices have increased 59.9% over the past 12 months and 11.2% in June alone.
Washington’s inflation fighter, the Federal Reserve, may respond to this report with another big interest rate increase later in July to cut into the demand drivers of inflation, as they did at their meeting last month. Biden has already seen inflation wreck his approval rating, but can hope that if Saudi Arabia agrees to bring more oil onto the market, the price of gasoline, an important contributor to inflation, will decline. Meanwhile, there’s evidence the gas price surge is already receding:
29 days straight of declining #gasprices! We’re now down 40c/gal from the peak with Americans spending $150 million LESS on gasoline today alone vs June 14. National average $4.634/gal with over 10,000 stations at $3.99 or less. We will fall under $4.60 by the weekend.
— Patrick De Haan ⛽️? (@GasBuddyGuy) July 13, 2022
Biden begins tough Middle East trip with US inflation as bad as ever
Good morning, US politics reader. President Joe Biden has just landed in Israel for the first visit to the Middle East of his presidency, but even there, he won’t be able to escape the troubling state of the US economy. Inflation soared 9.1% in June compared to the same month last year, the government reported just minutes ago, and indeed, that problem will be on the agenda during his visit – convincing Saudi Arabia to raise oil production in a bid to lower gas prices in America is considered one of the president’s priorities.
Here’s what else is happening today:
- The Senate health committee will at 10 am eastern time be hearing from health care providers impacted by last month’s supreme court ruling overturning the right to abortion nationwide.
- A new poll shows Democrats and Republicans are in a close race when it comes to which party voters would prefer controlling Congress.
- With Biden set to visit Saudi Arabia, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, widow of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said she had met with White House advisors and called on the US president to press Riyadh’s leadership for the release of political prisoners.
