Who will bear this pain? Not corporate executives. Not Wall Street. Not big investors. Not the upper-middle class.
By Robert Reich, LA Progressive
This week’s consumer price index report shows annual inflation still roaring at 8.3%. Even without food and energy included, core inflation rose back above six percent year-on-year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This means the Fed will almost certainly raise interest rates by another three-quarter of a point when it meets next week. And then probably keep raising rates.
How much economic “pain”—as Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently called it—will be needed to control the worst breakout of U.S. inflation since the 1980s?
Researchers at the International Monetary fund are now saying that the unemployment rate may need to reach as high as 7.5%—double its current level—to end the country’s outbreak of high inflation. This would entail job losses of about 6 million people.
Who will bear this pain? Not corporate executives. Not Wall Street. Not big investors. Not the upper-middle class.
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