Timothy B. Lee, the publisher of Full Stack Economics, tackles the highest inflation in 40 years and, in 14 charts, tries to break down why America is in the economic mess that triggered record high gas prices this summer, skyrocketing energy prices, and an unaffordable cost-of-living that is stressing many Americans.
From Full Stack Economics:
Last week, the U.S. got another bad inflation report. The headline annual inflation rate declined from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent, driven by the plunging cost of gasoline. But core inflation—a measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices — rose from 5.9 percent to 6.3 percent, signaling that the nation’s inflation problems are far from over.
In his article Lee uses charts to explore the many facets of America’s inflation mess. He examines the forces that caused prices to shoot up last year, and looks at how those increases have played out in different sectors across the economy.
Lee does so in the following 14 charts. Check out the charts and the inflation breakdown here.
- Median inflation is at its highest level in decades
- The pandemic scrambled the inflation picture
- Rent inflation is baked in for the next year
- This is what an overheated job market looks like
- The stimulus put money in people’s pockets
- Why 2020 worked out differently than 2008
- The COVID stimulus bills boosted incomes a little too much
- The case for targeting nominal spending
- A durable goods spending spree
- Pay attention to the red line
- The global context
- Containerized ocean shipping is up, not down
- The rising cost of moving stuff around
- What markets tell us about inflation expectations