Another Republican President, Another Recession.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation jumped in December at its fastest year-over-year pace in nearly four decades, surging 7% and raising costs for consumers, offsetting recent wage gains and heightening pressure on President Joe Biden and the Federal Reserve to address what is increasingly Americans’ central economic concern.

Prices have spiked during the recovery from the pandemic recession as Americans have ramped up spending on goods such as cars, furniture and appliances. Those increased purchases have clogged ports and warehouses and exacerbated supply shortages of semiconductors and other parts. Gas prices, while declining a bit from November to December, have surged in the past year, in part because Americans have driven more in recent months after having cut back on travel and commuting earlier in the pandemic.

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The Labor Department reported Wednesday that excluding volatile food and gas prices, so-called core prices surged 0.6% from November to December, slightly more than the 0.5% increase from October to November. Measured year over year, core prices jumped 5.5% in December, the fastest such increase since 1991.

Rising prices have wiped out the healthy pay increases that many Americans have been receiving, making it harder for households, especially lower-income families, to afford basic expenses. Poll show that inflation has started displacing even the coronavirus as a public concern, making clear the political threat it poses to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.

A significant portion of consumer inflation is still being driven by pandemic-driven mismatches between demand and supply. Used car costs rose 3.5% from November to December and have soared more than 37% compared with a year ago. With new car production restrained by shortages of semiconductors, consumers have snapped up used cars, forcing up their costs.

Shortages at U.S. grocery stores have also grown more acute in recent weeks as new problems, like the omicron variant and severe weather, have compounded the supply chain struggles and labor shortages that have plagued retailers since the coronavirus pandemic erupted.

On Tuesday, Chair Jerome Powell told Congress that the Federal Reserve is prepared to accelerate the interest rate hikes it plans to begin this year if it deems it necessary to curb high inflation. Fed officials have estimated that they will raise their benchmark short-term rate, now pegged near zero, three times this year. Many economists envision as many as four Fed rate hikes in 2022.

Those rate increases would likely increase borrowing costs for home and auto purchases as well as for business loans, potentially slowing the economy. The rate hikes also mark a sharp reversal in policy by Fed policymakers, who as recently as September had been split over whether to raise rates even once this year. The Fed is also rapidly ending its monthly bond purchases, which were intended to lower longer-term interest rates to encourage borrowing and spending.

Yet the Fed’s quick pivot hasn’t quelled questions from many former Fed officials, economists and some senators about whether the Fed has acted too slowly to end its ultra-low-interest rate policies in the face of accelerating inflation -- and put the economy at risk as a result.

In his testimony to Congress on Tuesday, Powell said the Fed mistakenly believed that supply chain bottlenecks that have helped drive up the prices of goods wouldn’t last nearly as long as they have. Once the supply chains were unsnarled, he said, prices would come back down.

Yet for now, the supply problems have persisted, and though there are signs that they are loosening in some industries, Powell acknowledged that progress has been limited. He noted that many cargo ships remain docked outside the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s largest, waiting to unload.

With the Biden administration facing public discontent over the rise in inflation, President Joe Biden has said his administration’s investments in ports, roads, bridges and other infrastructure would help ease inflation by loosening some snarled supply chains.

In the meantime, many restaurants have been passing some of their higher labor and food costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. So far, many consumers seem willing to pay more. Gene Lee, CEO of Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and other brands, told investors recently that this is “the toughest inflationary environment we’ve seen in years.”

The company said its food and beverage costs jumped 9% during the quarter, and its hourly wage costs rose nearly 9% as it raised pay to attract workers. Darden said it raised its prices, in turn, by 2% during the quarter and expects to raise them by 4% over the next two quarters to help compensate. Rick Cardenas, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said those higher prices have yet to reduce consumer demand.

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The Biden administration on Friday announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math — part of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive.

The State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields, known as STEM, complete up to 36 months of academic training, according to senior administration officials. There will also be a new initiative to connect these students with U.S. businesses. The officials insisted on anonymity to discuss the changes before their official announcement.

Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of study — including cloud computing, data visualization and data science — to a program that allows international graduates from U.S. universities to spend up to three additional years training with domestic employers. The program generated about 58,000 applications in fiscal 2020.

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The programs are designed to ensure that the U.S. is a magnet for talent from around the world, attracting scientists and researchers whose breakthroughs will enable the economy to grow. Government data shows that international students are increasingly the lifeblood of academic research.

The government’s National Science Board reported this week that international students on temporary visas account for more than half of U.S. doctoral degrees in economics, computer sciences, engineering and mathematics and statistics. But in the sciences and engineering, China is fast closing the gap in doctoral degrees by generating nearly as many graduates as the U.S. did in 2018.

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High school graduation rates dipped in at least 20 states after the first full school year disrupted by the pandemic, suggesting the coronavirus may have ended nearly two decades of nationwide progress toward getting more students diplomas, an analysis shows.

The drops came despite at least some states and educators loosening standards to help struggling students.

The results, according to data obtained from 26 states and analyzed by Chalkbeat, are the latest concerning trend in American education, which has been rocked by a pandemic that left many students learning remotely last year and continues to complicate teaching and learning. Some fear that the next several graduating classes could be even more affected.

“It does concern me,” said Chris Reykdal, the schools superintendent in Washington state, where the graduation rate fell by about half a point. “I don’t ever want to see a decline. We’ve made such steady progress.”

In 2020, when schools shuttered for the final months of the school year, most states waived outstanding graduation requirements and saw graduation rates tick up. But the picture was different for the class of 2021. In 20 of 26 states that have released their data, graduation rates fell. Comprehensive national data will likely not be available until 2023.

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Those declines were less than a percentage point in some states, like Colorado, Georgia and Kansas. Elsewhere, they were larger. Illinois, Oregon, and North Dakota saw graduation rates drop 2 points, and Indiana, Maine, Nevada, South Dakota, and West Virginia saw declines of at least 1 point.

Where rates increased, growth was modest. Florida had seen graduation rates jump by more than 2 points every year for a decade but gained just a tenth of a point in 2021, even as state officials waived certain diploma requirements.

“We do have to be concerned that grad rates are down and that some number of kids that earned a diploma, they’ve learned less than prior years,” said Robert Balfanz, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education and director of a research center focused on high school graduation. “What we’re going to have to learn in the future is, how great is the concern?”

Last year’s senior class saw school disrupted in distinct ways. In Nevada’s Washoe County schools, for example, the graduation rate tumbled by 2.6 points as many teens worked longer hours or spent more time caring for siblings.

Carly Lott, a counselor at Hug High School in Reno, grew concerned last year as the hours on her students’ pay stubs, which the school collects to offer elective credits, rose from 20 to 30 a week to 40 to 50. Some students worked during remote school days, while others took late-night shifts that left them too tired to concentrate on schoolwork.

Lott made sure students knew about the district’s food bank and grew used to asking, “Do you absolutely need to work, or can you cut back?” As course failures stacked up, a trend schools reported nationwide, counselors nudged seniors to come to school in person to make up missed credits.

“If they were at home, they weren’t engaged — they were doing other things,” Lott said.

One of last year’s graduates, 19-year-old De’karius Graham, had an up-close view of how 12th graders struggled.

There was no prom to look forward to, and all his senior classes at Florida’s Polk County schools were online, an experience he describes as “low social interaction, low teacher interaction.” He often turned to YouTube to figure out confusing assignments.

“It was a lot of self-teaching and self-motivation,” he said. “I was just really alone with it all.”

At the same time, Graham was running his own landscaping business to make money and helping seven school-age siblings with their homework. He also spent time working with a close friend who struggled with online assignments without reliable internet.

Other students got derailed. Eighteen-year-old Lailani Greaves had been behind before the pandemic but was aiming to graduate with the class of 2021. Without in-person connections, her motivation plummeted.

“I didn’t have a clear head where I was focused and able to go every day and catch up on some work and log in to the computer,” she said. “Just talking to a computer — it didn’t feel real.”

The New York City student contemplated dropping out and getting her GED but ultimately transferred to a smaller high school and is hopeful she’ll graduate this year.

“I realized that I could go farther with my high school diploma,” said Greaves, who wants to pursue a career in medicine.

Despite those challenges, statewide graduation rates are still typically higher now than they were a few years ago. But the modest declines are striking departures from recent trends.

In 2001, an estimated 71% of U.S. students who started ninth grade at a public high school graduated four years later. By 2019, that number had jumped to 86%, although the nation’s way of calculating that has changed slightly.

On its face, that increase is one of the biggest recent success stories in American education. A recent Brookings Institution study concluded that the gains were a result of new federal pressure on states and schools and found little evidence that the long-term improvements were due to lower standards.

The causes are much debated, though. A 2015 NPR investigation found that many students graduated with the help of hasty, low-quality credit recovery courses. Some of the states with the nation’s top graduation rates, like Alabama and West Virginia, also have very low test scores.

Some fear that cumulative effects of the pandemic stand to hit future graduating classes hardest. In both Oregon and Nevada, the share of high school freshmen who finished last school year on track to graduate was about 10 percentage points lower than before the pandemic. This school year, attendance has also been unusually low.

Lott worries many seniors won’t graduate on time this year, either.

“We have a significant group of kids on our campus who failed an entire year of high school,” she said. Those students get extra check-ins with Lott, who says it will be hard but not impossible to make up those classes through online credit recovery.

“I tell them, there will be a time that you’re going to want to give up,” she said. “That’s when we need to talk with you, because we can help you through that motivational slump.”

Schools have received large sums of federal aid that could be used to help students to graduate, but Washington’s Reykdal said schools have recently been focused on staffing and safety.

“If I had talked to my districts a year ago, they all would have said graduation and recovery, and right now they’re saying more PPE, finding substitutes,” he said.

Still, some educators are hopeful last year’s dip represents an anomaly. In Peoria, Illinois, where the graduation rate fell 4 points after climbing steadily for years, Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat thinks the district’s expanded “safety net” for struggling students will help.

Every week, a team of educators identifies students with failing grades for extra support. The district has also added ways for working students to earn credits in the evenings or on weekends, and has hired three “navigators” to help students who are in the juvenile justice system to finish school.

“It is not easy,” Desmoulin-Kherat said. “It’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020′s brief but devastating coronavirus recession.

The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year growth since a 7.2% surge in 1984 after a previous recession. The economy ended the year by growing at an unexpectedly brisk 6.9% annual pace from October through December as businesses replenished their inventories, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

“It just goes to show that the U.S. economy has learned to adapt to the new variants and continues to produce,″ said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings.

Squeezed by inflation and still gripped by COVID-19 caseloads, the economy is expected to slow this year. Many economists have been downgrading their forecasts for the current January-March quarter, reflecting the impact of the omicron variant. And for all of 2022, the International Monetary Fund has forecast that the the nation’s GDP growth will slow to 4%.

Many U.S. businesses, especially restaurants, bars, hotels and entertainment venues, remain under pressure from the omicron variant, which has kept millions of people hunkered down at home to avoid crowds. Consumer spending, the primary driver of the economy, may be further held back this year by the loss of government aid to households, which nurtured activity in 2020 and 2021 but has mainly expired.

What’s more, the Federal Reserve made clear Wednesday that it plans to raise interest rates multiple times this year to battle the hottest inflation in nearly four decades. Those rate increases will make borrowing more expensive and perhaps slow the economy this year.

Growth last year was driven up by a 7.9% surge in consumer spending and a 9.5% increase in private investment.

For the final three months of 2021, consumer spending rose at a more muted 3.3% annual pace. But private investment rocketed 32% higher, boosted by a surge in business inventories as companies stocked up to meet higher customer demand. Rising inventories, in fact, accounted for 71% of the fourth-quarter growth.

“The upside surprise came largely from a surge in inventories, and the details aren’t as strong as the headline would suggest,″ Kathy Bostjancic, Oxford Economics’ chief U.S. financial economist, said in a research note.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said, “We are finally building an American economy for the 21st century, with the fastest economic growth in nearly four decades, along with the greatest year of job growth in American history.”

Arising from the 2020 pandemic recession, a healthy rebound had been expected for 2021. GDP had shrunk 3.4% in 2020, the steepest full-year drop since an 11.6% plunge in 1946, when the nation was demobilizing after World War II. The eruption of COVID in March 2020 had led authorities to order lockdowns and businesses to abruptly shut down or reduce hours. Employers slashed a staggering 22 million jobs. The economy sank into a deep recession.

But super-low interest rates, huge infusions of government aid — including $1,400 checks to most households — and, eventually, the widespread rollout of vaccines revived the economy. Many consumers regained the confidence and financial wherewithal to go out and spend again.

The resurgence in demand was so robust, in fact, that it caught businesses off guard. Many struggled to acquire enough supplies and workers to meet a swift increase in customer orders. With many people now working remotely, shortages became especially acute for goods ordered for homes, from appliances to sporting goods to electronic equipment. And with computer chips in especially short supply, auto dealers were left desperately short of vehicles.

Factories, ports and freight yards were overwhelmed, and supply chains became ensnarled. Inflation began to accelerate. Over the past 12 months, consumer prices soared 7% — the fastest year-over-year inflation since 1982. Food, energy and autos were among the items whose prices soared the most.

Late last year, the economy began to show signs of fatigue. Retail sales, for instance, fell 1.9% in December. And manufacturing slowed in December to its lowest level in 11 months, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden urged U.S. governors on Monday to ramp up their construction plans as his administration rolled out a guidebook for accessing the nearly $1 trillion made available by the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Biden welcomed governors to the White House on Monday as part of the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, and he cajoled them on the importance of infrastructure.

“You know how to build roads and bridges,” the Democratic president told them. “Well, we got a hell of a lot to build.”

After the meeting, a pair of governors described infrastructure as a place for bipartisan cooperation and stressed that it was important for states to be able to spend money as they see fit.

“In terms of the infrastructure, the magic word from the governors is give us flexibility, hold us accountable, but we know how to invest in infrastructure and, trust us, and we want to partner with the administration,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican and chairman of the National Governors Association.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat and the association’s vice chairman, said infrastructure was “probably the topic that came up the most, was discussed the most, and where we found an enormous amount of enthusiasm.” Murphy added that he would “underscore” the significance of “flexibility ... in terms of how the monies can be spent. ”

Mitch Landrieu, a senior White House adviser who is supervising the infrastructure spending, said the goal of the 461-page book is to ensure that all communities have the details on how to qualify for funding, no matter their size or politics.

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“It’s an absolute road map,” said Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans.

The book is meant to level the playing field by making it easier for smaller cities, tribal leaders, nonprofits and faith-based groups to compete for money that usually only lobbyists know how to access. The infrastructure deal is unique in its scope as it goes beyond roads and bridges to include such initiatives as broadband internet, replacement of lead water pipes and resilience against climate change.

Administration officials assembled the guidebook quickly as the infrastructure package became law on Nov. 15. Copies are available online at build.gov, though the administration is working with associations and direct contacts to make sure it reaches government officials in communities of all sizes. Landrieu said he has already spoken with 43 governors and more than 250 mayors as part of the push.

The infrastructure package includes 375 distinct programs, of which 125 are new. And while the guidebook is more than twice the size of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “The Great Gatsby,” it’s considerably shorter and easier to navigate than the infrastructure law, which stretched for more than 1,000 pages.

About 60% of the funds are available through formula and 40% through competitive applications. Not all the infrastructure money is able to go out as the federal government is operating on a continuing resolution that runs through Feb. 18, instead of an annual budget. Still, not all of the money will go out immediately as the programs are generally operating on a five- to seven-year timeline.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a burst of 467,000 jobs in January despite a wave of omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.

The Labor Department’s report Friday also showed the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.9% to 4%. Estimated job growth for December was also revised much higher, from 199,000 to 510,000.

The strong hiring gain, which was unexpected, demonstrates the eagerness of many employers to hire even as the pandemic maintains its grip on the economy. Businesses appear to have seen the omicron wave as having, at most, a temporary impact on the economy and remain confident about longer-term growth.

The still-high number of people who have remained on the sidelines of the workforce has exacerbated a labor shortage and led employers to raise pay to try to draw them back in.

The overall outlook for the job market remains bright, with openings near a record high, the pace of layoffs down and the unemployment rate having already reached a healthy level. The nation gained more jobs last year, adjusted for the size of the workforce, than in any year since 1978. The unemployment rate fell by nearly 3 percentage points — from 6.7% to 3.9% — the sharpest yearly decline on records. Much of that improvement represented a rebound from record job losses in 2020 that were driven by the pandemic recession.

Even so, the economy’s strong growth and hiring gains last year were accompanied by the highest inflation in four decades, magnified by brisk consumer spending on furniture, electronics, appliances and other goods and vast infusions of federal aid that has now largely expired.

Snarled supply chains hampered the availability of many goods, especially new and used vehicles, forcing prices up sharply. Prices of food, energy and housing soared, too. High inflation has wiped out many Americans’ pay gains.

Omicron infections are likely slowing the economy in the January-March quarter, particularly compared with the rapid expansion in the final three months of 2021, when it grew at a robust 6.9% annual rate. Some analysts have forecast that growth will weaken to an annual rate as low as 1% in the first three months of this year.

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One reason for the slowdown: Americans cut their spending in January as the spread of the coronavirus discouraged some people from eating out, traveling and going to movies and other entertainment venues.

Yet as omicron fades, there are signs that consumers are poised to spend again. Auto sales jumped in January after several months of declines. Carmakers have managed to slowly ramp up production. And Americans’ incomes rose at a solid pace last month, providing fuel for future spending.

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Experts predicted a bad jobs report but Americans were very pleasantly surprised when the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday reported 467,000 jobs were created in January – tripling estimates – and increased the two previous months' jobs numbers as well.

HOLY COW Revisions added 700,000 jobs to the last two months YUGE
— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) February 4, 2022

Most Americans, that is.

Take a look at how Fox News was "giddy with anticipation of massive job loss," as Media Matters' Senior Research Fellow Craig Harrington noted, posting this video compilation:

Up until just *seconds* before the release of the January jobs report, Fox News was giddy with anticipation of massive job loss... pic.twitter.com/kH5dZOQYF4
— Craig Harrington (@Craigipedia) February 4, 2022

"Fox News, rooting against America," decried Never-Trumper Bill Kristol.

"Real patriots don’t root for failure. But that’s exactly what Fox News does," wrote veteran journalist Jim Roberts in response to the video.

CNN Contributor, World affairs columnist Frida Ghitis: "How embarrassing, Fox rooting for bad news for the country."

John Haltiwanger, a Senior Politics Reporter at BusinessInsider said Fox News was "Rooting for America to fail to own the libs."

And Lincoln Project member and veteran GOP campaign strategist Stuart Stevens wrote this response to the video:

"Most appealing aspect of Reagan era was optimism. To be born an American was to win life's lottery. Now Rs are all fear & pessimism. Grievance. Books are terrifying, America's great cities are terrifying. Immigrants are terrifying. The future is terrifying. A party of the fearful"

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The Biden administration is kicking off an outreach campaign to get millions of families to file their taxes — so they can receive the second half of payments from the expanded child tax credit.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and White House senior adviser Gene Sperling are hosting a virtual event Tuesday to encourage people to send their tax forms to the IRS, including those whose incomes are so low that they might not have traditionally filed.

Several lawmakers and nonprofits are taking part in the event, and there are plans to hold events in all 50 states and Puerto Rico during the tax filing season, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the forthcoming plans.

As part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, President Joe Biden increased the child tax credits to $3,600 annually for each child aged 5 or under and $3,000 for those who are age 6 to 17. The government began to send the payments out on a monthly basis starting last July, meaning that there are six months worth of payments waiting to be claimed by people filing their taxes.

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The payments would come at a moment when families are coping with rising prices for food, gasoline and other goods relative to a year ago. Administration officials estimate that $193 billion would go to 58 million eligible households that file taxes, meaning that families would receive credits on their taxes or refunds averaging $3,330 from this provision.

Workers without children could also get additional help this tax season if they file. The relief package nearly tripled the earned income tax credit for workers without dependent children, meaning that 17 million people could receive credits worth $1,500.

The expanded child tax credits were seen as slashing child poverty to the lowest levels on record. A recent analysis by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Appalachian State University found no evidence that the monthly payments caused parents to stop working, which was one of the criticisms by opponents of the expanded credit.

Biden pushed to continue the expanded child tax for another year as part of his “Build Back Better” agenda. But in an evenly split Senate, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin opposed the expanded credit out of concerns that its price tag could increase the deficit and worsen inflation.

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https://www.rawstory.com/trump-china-2656602033/

Just before the novel coronavirus struck, former President Donald Trump was hyping a trade deal he was negotiating with the Chinese government that he said would have obligated China to buy billions worth of American exports.

But Chad P. Brown, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, has crunched some numbers and has found that Trump's China deal has been a massive bust.

"In the end, China bought only 57 percent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war," Brown writes. "Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump's deal had promised."

Brown does give Trump credit for coming to some kind of deal with Xi, which he said halted what he described as a "spiraling" trade war between the United States and China.

But that's about where the success of the deal ends.

"President Trump's trade war and phase on agreement did little to change China's economic policymaking," he argues. "Beijing seems intent on becoming more state centered and less market oriented. With the December 31, 2021 deadline for the $200 billion of purchase commitments now past, US policymakers are seeking a different approach."

Read the full analysis here.

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hanimmal said:

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TORONTO (AP) — A blockade of the bridge between Canada and Detroit by protesters demanding an end to Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions forced the shutdown Wednesday of a Ford plant and began to have broader implications for the North American auto industry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, stood firm against an easing of Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions in the face of mounting pressure during recent weeks by protests against the restrictions and against Trudeau himself.

The protest by people mostly in pickup trucks entered its third day at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Traffic was prevented from entering Canada, while U.S.-bound traffic was still moving.

The bridge carries 25% of all trade between the two countries, and Canadian authorities expressed increasing worry about the economic effects.

Ford said late Wednesday that parts shortages forced it to shut down its engine plant in Windsor and to run an assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, on a reduced schedule.

“This interruption on the Detroit-Windsor bridge hurts customers, auto workers, suppliers, communities and companies on both sides of the border,” Ford said in a statement. “We hope this situation is resolved quickly because it could have widespread impact on all automakers in the U.S. and Canada.”

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Shortages due to the blockade also forced General Motors to cancel the second shift of the day at its midsize-SUV factory near Lansing, Michigan. Spokesman Dan Flores said it was expected to restart Thursday and no additional impact was expected for the time being.

Later Wednesday, Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said the company will not be able to manufacture anything at three Canadian plants for the rest of this week due to parts shortages. A statement attributed the problem to supply chain, weather and pandemic-related challenges, but the shutdowns came just days after the blockade began Monday.

“Our teams are working diligently to minimize the impact on production,” the company said, adding that it doesn’t expect any layoffs at this time.

Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, reported normal operations, though the company had to cut shifts short the previous day at its Windsor minivan plant.

A growing number of Canadian provinces have moved to lift some of their precautions as the omicron surge levels off, but Trudeau defended the measures the federal government is responsible for, including the one that has angered many truck drivers: a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated.

“The reality is that vaccine mandates, and the fact that Canadians stepped up to get vaccinated to almost 90%, ensured that this pandemic didn’t hit as hard here in Canada as elsewhere in the world,” Trudeau said in Parliament.

About 90% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated, and trucker associations and many big-rig operators have denounced the protests. The U.S. has the same vaccination rule for truckers entering the country, so it would make little difference if Trudeau lifted the restriction.

Protesters have also been blocking the border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, for a week and a half, with about 50 trucks remaining there Wednesday. And more than 400 trucks have paralyzed downtown Ottawa, Canada’s capital, in a protest that began late last month.

While protesters have been calling for Trudeau’s removal, most of the restrictive measures around the country have been put in place by provincial governments. Those include requirements that people show proof-of-vaccination “passports” to enter restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and sporting events.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia announced plans this week to roll back some or all of their precautions. Alberta, Canada’s most conservative province, dropped its vaccine passport immediately and plans to get rid of mask requirements at the end of the month.

Alberta opposition leader Rachel Notley accused the province’s premier, Jason Kenney, of allowing an “illegal blockade to dictate public health measures.”

Despite Alberta’s plans to scrap its measures, the protest there continued.

“We’ve got guys here — they’ve lost everything due to these mandates, and they’re not giving up, and they’re willing to stand their ground and keep going until this is done,” said protester John Vanreeuwyk, a feedlot operator from Coaldale, Alberta.

“Until Trudeau moves,” he said, “we don’t move.”

As for the Ambassador Bridge blockade, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said police had not removed people for fear of inflaming the situation. But he added: “We’re not going to let this happen for a prolonged period of time.”

The demonstration involved 50 to 74 vehicles and about 100 protesters, police said. Some of the protesters say they are willing to die for their cause, according to the mayor.

“I’ll be brutally honest: You are trying to have a rational conversation, and not everyone on the ground is a rational actor,” Dilkens said. “Police are doing what is right by taking a moderate approach, trying to sensibly work through this situation where everyone can walk away, nobody gets hurt, and the bridge can open.”

To avoid the blockade and get into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a 4½-hour delay leaving the U.S.

At a news conference in Ottawa that excluded mainstream news organizations, Benjamin Dichter, one of the protest organizers, said: “I think the government and the media are drastically underestimating the resolve and patience of truckers.”

“Drop the mandates. Drop the passports,” he said.

The “freedom truck convoy” has been promoted by Fox News personalities and attracted support from many U.S. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who called Trudeau a “far left lunatic” who has “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.”

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. Canada’s COVID-19 death rate is one-third that of the U.S.

Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen said in Parliament that countries around the world are removing restrictions and noted that Canadian provinces are, too. She accused Trudeau of wanting to live in a “permanent pandemic.”

“Many of the reasons that were previously to keep Canadians under restrictions are vanishing before our eyes,” she said. “The prime minister needs to put his ego aside. He needs to do what’s right for the country. He needs to end the mandates. He needs to end the restrictions.”

Ontario, Canada’s largest province with almost 40% of the country’s population, is sticking to what it calls a “very cautious” stance toward the pandemic, and the deputy premier said it has no plans to drop vaccine passports or mask requirements.

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hanimmal said:

If you actually took two seconds to reread what you wrote you would see it doesn't make any sense at all.

The Democrats were busy trying to fix the economy, figuring out what to spend on is not magic or some 'gut' logic. And also plugging holes in the laws that lead to the financial market crash, and bailing out the auto makers.

The Republicans during the entire time Obama was fixing their mess trolled them with their 'Tea Party' astroturf movement funded by the mega wealthy Koch Bros. So that the next election two years later the Republicans won the House and were able to shut everything down until McConnell really got to end Obama's ability to govern at all.

The Democrats have not been in power long enough to do all the things that need to get done, it is not that they have complaining about not having the money to do it, it is that money never got appropriated to do them.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year, it was a nasty surprise. And it wasn’t supposed to last. But now, inflation has become an ongoing financial strain for millions of Americans filling up at the gas station, lined up at a grocery checkout lane, shopping for clothes, bargaining for a car or paying monthly rent.

For the 12 months ending in January, inflation amounted to 7.5% — the fastest year-over-year pace since 1982 — the Labor Department said Thursday. Even if you toss out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation jumped 6% over the past year. That was also the sharpest such jump in four decades.

Consumers felt the price squeeze in everyday routines. Over the past year, prices rose 41% for used cars and trucks, 40% for gasoline, 18% for bacon, 14% for bedroom furniture, 11% for women’s dresses.

The Federal Reserve didn’t anticipate an inflation wave this severe or this persistent. In December 2020, the Fed’s policymakers had forecast that consumer inflation would stay below their 2% annual target and end 2021 at around 1.8%.

But after having been an economic afterthought for decades, high inflation reasserted itself last year with brutal speed. In February 2021, the government’s consumer price index was running just 1.7% ahead of its level a year earlier. From there, the year-over-year price increases accelerated steadily — 2.7% in March, 4.2% in April, 4.9% in May, 5.3% in June.

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By October, the figure was 6.2%, by November 6.8%, by December 7.1%.

For months, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and others characterized higher consumer prices as merely a “transitory” problem — the result, mainly, of shipping delays and temporary shortages of supplies and workers as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession much faster than anyone had anticipated.

Now, many economists expect consumer inflation to remain elevated well into this year, with demand outstripping supplies in numerous areas of the economy.

“Inflation remains the single largest near-term challenge to the economy,″ said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “Although price pressures are expected to ease as the year progresses, inflation will remain above the Fed’s 2% target for some time to come.″

So the Fed has radically changed course. Last month, the central bank signaled that it will begin a series of rate hikes in March. By doing so, the Fed is moving away from the super-low rates that helped revive the economy from 2020′s devastating pandemic recession but that also helped fuel surging consumer prices.

____

WHAT’S CAUSED THE SPIKE IN INFLATION?

Good news — mostly. When the pandemic paralyzed the economy in the spring of 2020 and lockdowns kicked in, businesses closed or cut hours and consumers stayed home as a health precaution, employers slashed a breathtaking 22 million jobs. Economic output plunged at a record-shattering 31% annual rate in 2020′s April-June quarter.

Everyone braced for more misery. Companies cut investment and postponed restocking. A brutal recession ensued.

But instead of sinking into a prolonged downturn, the economy staged an unexpectedly rousing recovery, fueled by vast infusions of government aid and emergency intervention by the Fed, which slashed interest rates, among other things. By spring of last year, the rollout of vaccines had emboldened consumers to return to restaurants, bars, shops and airports.

Suddenly, businesses had to scramble to meet demand. They couldn’t hire fast enough to fill job openings — a near record 10.9 million in December — or buy enough supplies to meet customer orders. As business roared back, ports and freight yards couldn’t handle the traffic. Global supply chains became seized up.

With demand up and supplies down, costs rose. And companies found that they could pass along those higher costs in the form of higher prices to consumers, many of whom had managed to sock away a ton of savings during the pandemic.

But critics, including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, blamed in part President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with its $1,400 checks to most households, for overheating an economy that was already sizzling on its own.

The Fed and the federal government had feared an agonizingly slow recovery like the one that followed the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

____

HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

Elevated consumer price inflation will likely endure as long as companies struggle to keep up with consumers’ demand for goods and services. A recovering job market — employers added a record 6.7 million jobs last year and tacked on 467,000 more in January — means that many Americans can continue to splurge on everything from lawn furniture to electronics.

Many economists foresee inflation staying well above the Fed’s 2% target this year. But relief from higher prices might be coming. Jammed-up supply chains are beginning to show some signs of improvement, at least in some industries. The Fed’s sharp pivot away from easy-money policies toward a more hawkish, anti-inflationary policy could slow the economy and reduce consumer demand. There will be no repeat of last year’s COVID relief checks from Washington.

Inflation itself is eating into household purchasing power and might force some consumers to shave back spending.

Omicron or other COVID’ variants could cloud the outlook, either by causing outbreaks that force factories and ports to close and disrupt supply chains even more or by keeping people home and reducing demand for goods.

“It’s not going to be an easy climb down,″ said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “We’re expecting CPI to still be roughly 4% at the end of this year. That’s still well above what the Fed would like it to be and, of course, well above what consumers are used to seeing.″

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HOW ARE HIGHER PRICES AFFECTING CONSUMERS?

A strong job market is boosting wages, though not enough to compensate for higher prices. The Labor Department says that hourly earnings for all private-sector employees fell 1.7% last month from a year earlier after accounting for higher consumer prices. But there are exceptions: After-inflation wages were up more than 10% for hotel workers and more than 7% for restaurant and bar employees in December from a year earlier.

Partisan politics also colors the way Americans view the inflation threat. With a Democrat in the White House, Republicans were nearly three times as likely as Democrats (45% versus 16%) to say that inflation is having a negative effect last month on their personal finances, according to a University of Michigan survey.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/14/inflation-prices-supply-chain/
View attachment 5025937

I think this chart is going to be the one that is most useful in seeing how inflation is going to go.

View attachment 5025938

The decrease in October from last year's Republican led recession is showing up this month in a bigger increase. November should also see a bit larger inflation rate, and then it should start to decline before it starts to drastically decrease in May 2022 and start to move through the larger inflation rates.

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Fogdog said:

supply chain disruptions.

You mean like this?

View attachment 5084344

It seemed to be a pretty stupid protest at the time. Maybe it wasn't a protest but a naked act of economic sabotage?

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