If you live in the United States and you’ve been feeling an extra pinch at the grocery store, you are not alone and it’s not your imagination.
During the 2020 presidential election cycle, food inflation in the U.S. was 3.9%. With less than 50 days left before the 2024 presidential election, food inflation has reached 25.8%, more than six times the inflation in 2020.
Former President and Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has responded to negative polling showing a small lead for his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, by attacking her and Democrats as the party responsible for the country’s food inflation.
The Trump campaign’s new political ads attack Harris for having been the deciding vote that passed the 2021 American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief measure that disbursed funds to businesses and local governments.
Inflation reached a 40-year high in 2022, rising 9.1% compared to 2021. While economists have pointed to the American Rescue Plan as a potential factor, the main drivers of this sustained inflation are considered to be supply chain issues during the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine, which spiked oil prices, and corporate price gouging.
The Fed Finally Lowers Interest Rates.
To fight inflation, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates eleven times between March 2022 and July 2023, from near 0% to between 5.25% and 5.5%. Raising the Federal interest rate is a key …
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