Joe Biden brushed off Tuesday’s unexpectedly high inflation numbers, even though they caused a sudden drop in the stock markets.
Biden said Tuesday night that he believed the country would be okay after being asked about the disappointing data releases earlier in the day.
After returning from Delaware, the White House, where he was voting in Delaware’s primary election, the president spoke briefly with reporters.
Biden answered a reporter’s question about his concern over the latest inflation numbers.
Biden dismissed the monthly-to-month inflation rate as “one-tenth” of 1 percent. This is despite the fact that grocery prices rose by 0.7 percent in August and rent rose by 0.7 percent. Electricity prices rose 1.5 percent and natural gas prices rose 3.5%. The inflation rate is 8.3 percent higher than the previous year.
However, economists don’t share Biden’s optimism about the situation.
Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former economic advisor to President Barack Obama, called the numbers “extremely ugly”. Larry Summers, a Harvard adviser, said that the United States has “a serious inflation problem.”
The median CPI, which excludes all the large changes in either direction and is better predicted by labor market slack, is out and is extremely ugly. A 9.2% annual rate in August, the single highest monthly print in their dataset which starts in 1983 (second highest was in June). pic.twitter.com/4W6XDLdJXA
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) September 13, 2022
Today’s CPI report confirms that the US has a serious inflation problem.
Core inflation is higher this month than for the quarter, higher this quarter than last quarter, higher this half of the year than the previous one, and higher last year than the previous one.— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) September 13, 2022
Investors expressed concern over the latest numbers.
In response to the unexpected data, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 1,276 points Tuesday. This suggests that inflation will remain stubbornly high.
