Displaying items by tag: inflation

RALEIGH — On May 12, as gas prices in N.C. hit a record high of $4.202 per gallon and the U.S. hit a record of $4.418, according to AAA, President Joe Biden’s administration canceled three potential leases for oil and gas drilling on a million acres in Alaska’s Cooke Inlet. In a statement, the Department of the Interior cited “lack of industry interest” and limited inquiries from oil companies on the lease. But industry insiders say that there is a breakdown between the administration and the petroleum industry that prevents providers from increasing production.

Thanks to inflation, Americans increasingly cannot afford their grocery bills. Global food prices are projected to increase 23 percent this year, on top of the 30 percent they increased last year. And per usual, those already living on the margins are feeling the consequences the most.

North Carolina’s labor markets are healing — slowly. As of March, our state’s headline unemployment rate was 3.5%, comparable to where it was before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. More importantly, while our labor-force participation is still significantly below the pre-COVID rate 59.2%, it is improving. It was 57.7% in March, up from 56.2% a year ago.

Climate change is real. Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities such as power generation and transportation are a causal factor. Because the net effects of climate change are likely to be harmful, governments should enact prudent policy responses.

This may be the dumbest thing you read today. Not my words, but this CNN article I’m about to tell you about.

"Today’s inflation report," U.S. president Joe Biden told us on March 10, "is a reminder that Americans’ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike."

President Biden’s State of the Union Address represents much of America today, a meandering belief in big government that’s woefully short on economic coherence. Yet, the state of the union is pretty evident to most.

According to numbers released by the U.S. government, consumer prices have increased by 7.5 percent in the past year, the steepest increase since 1982. The actual price increases are even worse than the government numbers suggest, given that the “official” statistics are manipulated to understate the real rate of price increases. According to John Williams of ShadowStats, prices have actually increased by around 15 percent over the past year.

What’s the hottest political issue right now? According to recent poll results, it’s inflation. Welcome to the 1970s, folks.

The subject of inflation has been on many tongues in the public policy world of late — especially as Republican politicians comb every nook and cranny of the news cycle for topics with which to launch broadsides at the Biden administration.