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Inflation

Wage Stagnation Vs. Living Wages For US Workers Today

November 4, 2025 Robert Pollin, Dollars and Sense. , , , ,
At the end of last August, President Donald Trump asserted that average wages for U.S. workers had risen by $546 during the first six months since he returned to office in January 2025. As with virtually all of Trump’s pronouncements, this one bears little relationship to the truth. In fact, when using the most reliable government data on wages and then controlling for inflation, workers’ wages did still rise under Trump, but by $26—that’s 95% less than the $546 average pay raise proclaimed by Trump. The reality of wage stagnation under Trump is fully consistent with his broader attack on working people.

How A Fed Overhaul Could Eliminate The Federal Debt Crisis

October 31, 2025 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. , , , ,
There has been considerable discussion in recent years about reforming, modifying, or even abolishing the Federal Reserve. Proposals range from ending its independence, to integrating its functions into the U.S. Treasury Department, to dismantling it and returning monetary policy to direct congressional or Treasury oversight.  The Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (H.R. 1846 and S. 869, 119th Congress, 2025-2026), introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie in the House and Sen. Mike Lee in the Senate on March 4, 2025, calls for abolishing the Fed’s Board of Governors and regional banks within one year of enactment, liquidating Fed assets and transferring net proceeds to the Treasury.

The Biggest Bargaining Mistake Unions Are Making In 2025

October 7, 2025 Richard De Vries, Labor Notes. , , , ,
When unions get ready for bargaining, we tend to look at the wage scale in our existing contract and think something like, “Let’s open with a proposal for a 5 percent raise every year, and maybe eventually we’ll settle at 3.75 percent.” This type of proposal was made out of habit when inflation was around 2 percent. While that may seem like a logical way to approach negotiations, you’re making a big mistake if you don’t take a closer look at the numbers. The error that many bargaining teams make is not reviewing the cost of living each of the previous five years. Because of extreme inflation during the last five years, minimum increases of as much as 10 percent may be needed to restore purchasing power.

Shining A Spotlight On The Federal Reserve’s War On The Working Class

August 7, 2025 Jon Jeter, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Describing the Federal Reserve chair’s monetary policies as “ill-advised,” the President and his Treasury Secretary doubled down on the White House’s urgent message: the central bank’s steadfast refusal to lower interest rates was strangling the economy by making it too costly for creditworthy borrowers—from prospective homebuyers to small business owners—to take out a loan. In a television interview, the President took aim at the Federal Reserve’s monetarist approach, which relies too much on a single factor—the money supply or the actual pool of banknotes in circulation—to tame inflation. Tightening the money supply through high interest rates tends to exert downward pressure on inflation, but it also discourages borrowing, and consequently, business activity that drives a consumer economy.

Food Prices And Stagnating Wages Weigh On US Residents

August 5, 2025 TeleSur, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
New economic data and surveys reveal growing financial anxiety among US nationals, who are grappling with rising food prices and slowing wage growth. Nearly seven months after Donald Trump returned to the White House, the promised “golden age” has not materialized for most, according to polls. According to a recent Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey, the vast majority of US adults feel stressed about food costs. This concern is particularly acute for low-income US residents, among whom 64% say grocery prices are one of their top sources of stress.

Big Corporations Are Using Trump Trade Chaos To Jack Up Prices

July 30, 2025 Brad Reed, Scheer Post. , , ,
The effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are winding their way through the American economy, and a new piece of analysis claims that corporate America is using them as “cover” to further jack up prices. Progressive advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative issued a new report on Tuesday that uses corporate executives’ own words to show how many firms are taking advantage of the tariff situation by using it as an all-purpose justification for price increases. The report found many of these executives’ admissions through quarterly earnings calls in which they discussed plans to increase costs even if their inputs were not being significantly affected by the tariffs.

This Is Why Trump’s Tariffs Will Fail

April 5, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , ,
In his first term as president of the United States, Donald Trump launched a trade war against China. In his second term, he has expanded that trade war to many countries around the world. In a ceremony outside the White House on April 2, which the US president dubbed “Liberation Day”, Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on dozens of countries, including high taxes on imports from top US trading partners: 54% on China, 46% on Vietnam, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan, and 20% on the European Union. Trump falsely claimed that these tariffs were “reciprocal”, but they were actually unilateral.

Is Trump ‘Making America Affordable Again’?

February 28, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
US President Trump ran his campaign on a pledge to “make America affordable again,” following the inflationary crisis during Biden’s administration. But since the beginning of his presidency, the cost of living crisis, including the cost of staple grocery items and rent, has persisted. Peoples Dispatch spoke to economist Richard Wolff, who outlined that “prices are shaped by many factors, and only a few of those are under the control of any president.” “Trump did what American politicians usually do, which is take a cheap shot at his political enemies by blaming them for something bad going on in this case, inflation,” Wolff said.

Inflation Poses Unique Challenges For Worker Co-Ops

February 5, 2025 Kenzie Love, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
Inflation is top of mind for many Canadian small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) these days. A recent survey of Canadian SMEs found 90 percent of them had been impacted by inflation, and another survey of 500 Canadian accountants revealed inflation as the most significant financial threat to Canadian SMEs. With the vast majority of Canadian worker co-ops being SMEs, it’s reasonable to assume that they’re also feeling these pressures. But delving deeper into the issue suggests that while worker co-ops face some of the same challenges as conventional businesses regarding inflation, how they respond is likely to be different.

Biden’s Pernicious Presidential Legacies

January 24, 2025 Dr. Jack Rasmus, World Financial Review. , , ,
Trump’s proposals to radically transform much of US economic and social policy are being rapidly rolled out during the first week of his administration. How much he succeeds or fails in that transformation will depend on a number of factors. High on the list of such factors is the residue of conditions and policies leftover by the Biden administration—i.e. the legacies of the Biden years. Those legacies will play an important role influencing, and perhaps even determining, how Trump may fare in implementing his plans.  So what are the legacy policies and conditions?

How To Escape The Federal Debt Trap

December 9, 2024 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. , , ,
The U.S. national debt just passed $36 trillion, only four months after it passed $35 trillion and up $2 trillion for the year. Third quarter data is not yet available, but interest payments as a percent of tax receipts rose to 37.8% in the third quarter of 2024, the highest since 1996. That means interest is eating up over one-third of our tax revenues. Total interest for the fiscal year hit $1.16 trillion, topping one trillion for the first time ever. That breaks down to $3 billion per day. For comparative purposes, an estimated $11 billion, or less than four days’ federal interest, would pay the median rent for all the homeless people in America for a year.

Why Donald Trump Won The US Election

November 8, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , ,
Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election in a landslide. Unlike in 2016, where Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote, this time he got 4 million more votes than his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Why was Harris defeated so thoroughly? In short, because the billionaire-funded neoliberal Democrats failed to provide an economic alternative to the billionaire-funded Republicans’ pseudo “populism”. Polls consistently showed that the economy was the number one issue in the 2024 race. Concern about the state of the economy was at the highest level since the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2007-09.

Working People Place Cost Of Living As Top Concern In US Elections

October 29, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
Just eight days remain until the people of the US head to the polls to decide their next president. The economy and inflation continues to be the top issue for voters by far, with eight in ten registered voters saying the economy will be very important to their vote according to the Pew Research Center. According to Gallup, the economy is the most important out of 22 issues voters were polled on, including “terrorism and national security”, immigration, education, healthcare, and crime. If one were to read exclusively the mainstream media, one would get the impression that all is well with the economy, that inflation is falling, and the job market is doing just fine.

Health Activists Picket Against High Cost Of Nutritious Food

October 20, 2024 Peoples Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
On World Food Day, October 16, the People’s Health Movement (PHM) South Africa organized a picket in front of the National Parliament to protest the high cost of healthy and nutritious food in the country. While the South African Constitution guarantees the right to food, PHM South Africa argued that only the wealthy can afford healthy meals today. “The soaring prices of nutritious food have placed it beyond the reach of millions, forcing many to resort to cheaper, ultra-processed foods,” they said. Ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to a long list of non-communicable diseases, including cancer and diabetes, make this a pressing social justice issue, the picket organizers noted.

Can The US Federal Reserve Really Control Inflation?

September 1, 2024 Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. , , ,
Another August, another speech by the Federal Reserve Chairman at the Jackson Hole Conference, where top central bankers and economists go to hobnob. So what’s new? Well, plenty. The last two speeches by Chairman Jerome Powell in 2022 and 2023 had markets nose-diving. In 2022, appearing contrite about having considered inflation transitory, Powell signaled that the unrelenting rate rises and promised to do all it takes to slay the dragon of inflation. Markets, high as they have been on the easy money of recent decades, went into severe and violent withdrawal. The following year, having brought rates up from a low of 0.25 percent to 5.5 percent, Powell now promised to keep them higher for longer, as he put it, because that is what he considered necessary to quell the still-persisting inflation.
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