Morning Jolt: You’re Not Imagining Food Inflation

TODAY'S JOLT IS SPONSORED BY

WITH JIM GERAGHTY

February 21 2024

On the menu today: A new report in the Wall Street Journal confirms what you likely suspected — despite the Consumer Price Index numbers (CPI) getting much closer to normal, you're still paying more to eat, whether you're shopping at the grocery store or going out to a restaurant. In fact, Americans haven't spent this much of their money on food since the early 1990s — a fact that is likely to widen the divide between the administration's happy talk about the economy and Americans' perceptions that they're constantly being squeezed, even if they're making more money than a few years ago. Meanwhile, to fight the rising cost of living, states are hiking the minimum wage, left and right. Hey, it's not like that increased cost of labor could ever get passed along to consumers, right?

The 'Shrinkflation' Election

Have you had this experience? You read that the year-to-year numbers of the CPI indicate that inflation is largely, if not completely, beaten . . . and then you go to Trader Joe's or your local grocery store, or you take the family out to eat, and when ...

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