On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump used his social media platform to share some good economic news with the public. “Just out: No Inflation!!!” the president wrote.
The claim was false but familiar. In fact, the Republican has spent recent weeks and months insisting that concerns about inflation are a thing of the past. “You know, if you think, inflation, I’ve already taken care of,” the president told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine last month. “Prices are way down for everything — groceries, everything.”
Unfortunately, reality continues to point in the opposite direction. Not only have grocery prices gone up, not down, but inflation obviously hasn’t been “taken care of.” CNBC reported Thursday on the latest data, which found inflation inching higher once again:
Prices consumers pay for a variety of goods and services moved higher than expected in August while jobless claims accelerated, providing challenging economic signals for the Federal Reserve before its meeting next week. The consumer price index posted a seasonally adjusted 0.4% increase for the month, the biggest gain since January, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.9%, up 0.2 percentage point from the prior month and the highest reading since January.
These results were worse than forecasters’ expectations. While the White House practically begs the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, the central bank’s inflation target is 2% — and with the latest report at 2.9%, the economy appears to be moving in the wrong direction.
Or put another way, I have some bad news for those who accepted Trump’s “Just out: No Inflation!!!” declaration at face value.
Making matters worse, this wasn’t the only piece of discouraging economic news. From the CNBC report: On employment, the Labor Department reported a surprise increase in weekly unemployment compensation filings to a seasonally adjusted 263,000 for the week ended Sept. 6, higher than the 235,000 estimate and up 27,000 from the prior period’s revised figure. The claims level marked the highest in nearly four years. What we’re left with is a broader picture that shows sluggish economic growth, a badly faltering manufacturing sector, the worst job market since the Great Recession and stubborn inflation that appears unlikely to improve so long as Trump’s trade tariffs remain in place. The president recently boasted, in reference to economic data, “We’re seeing phenomenal numbers. … I mean, really phenomenal numbers.” I wish that were true. It’s not.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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