By Hugh Jackson
The economy’s great, like nobody’s ever seen before, so quit your whining, Trump told the nation in a TV address Wednesday night.
Besides, while the economy is great at levels that have never been seen, if there is something about it that bothers you, obviously that’s Biden’s fault, Trump added.
So everybody stop complaining and instead start writing heartfelt thank-you notes to Trump for making all your lives so marvelous.
The inflation report released Thursday morning did find a lower rate in November than in September. (There was no October report because of the government shutdown.) The overall inflation rate in September was 3%, but in November it was down to 2.7%.
When the inflation rate goes down, that doesn’t mean prices are going down, of course. But at least it means they’re not rising as fast.
Alas, a lot of people are throwing a lot of shade at the report, some of them having warned earlier that shutdown-related data collection snags which torpedoed the October report altogether would continue to distort findings in the November report.
I’m not qualified to say if this is a reflection of that, but I did notice the breakdown by detailed expenditure category in Thursday morning’s report has no info on some expenses. A couple that caught my eye: Motor vehicle insurance, and admission to sporting events. (There was also no November inflation data on “whiskey at home,” but I digress.)
And while the overall inflation rate was slightly lower than 3% — which was not only the September rate but also the rate when Trump took office in January — several items rose by a lot more than that.
Beef was 16% more expensive in November than it was a year ago.
Frozen fish and seafood, 12%. Coffee, 19%. Electricity, 7%. Natural gas, 9%. Motor vehicle repair, 10%. Tenants’ and household insurance, 7%. Care of invalids and elderly at home, 11%.
“Food away from home” was up 3.7% in November, and “full service food away from home” was up 4.3%. While not notably higher than the 2.7% increase for all items, like beef or coffee or natural gas was, the cost of food away from home has been rising more than the topline consumer price index inflation rate for months.
The rising cost of food away from home hurts more in Nevada than in a lot of other states, because of Nevada’s pretty high sales tax rates (about which few to no elected officials in the state give a damn, but again I digress).
But the cost to Nevadans who eat out isn’t the only reason I mention the rising prices of food away from home.
“Accommodation and food services” is by far Nevada’s largest employment sector, accounting for more than 20% of the state’s jobs. And as I’ve noted before, in a metro area of 2.4 million people, it’s safe to assume those 2.4 million residents, not tourists, are the largest Southern Nevada customer base for food away from home on any given day. The last thing we need is weakness in spending by locals brought on by food inflation jeopardizing food service jobs throughout the valley.
Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that, because the economy is great, like nobody’s ever seen before! So to reiterate, quit your whining, right?
This commentary originally appeared in the Daily Current newsletter, which is free, and which you can subscribe to here.
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: [email protected].
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Republished with permission from Nevada Current
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