The 'I' word that will bite your budget

A survey from the University of Michigan on Friday showed consumers’ one-year inflation expectations shot up to 4.6% in May from 3.4% in April.

Prices are expected to keep rising for much of the summer, pushed up by, among other things, bottlenecks crimping supply of both materials and labor, and surging consumer demand.

Reuters put together a “Memorial Day Weekend price index” to capture the rising cost of an imaginary basket of things and indulgences redolent of the summer’s first long weekend, which this year is May 29-31.

The index, comprised largely of leisure expenses and excluding the cost of housing and doctor’s visits among other mundane items, rose about 4.3%, faster than the overall consumer price index.

Wow.  Wonder if anyone in the media will dare compare “the misery index” under President Trump and President Biden.  As you may remember, it was the sum of the unemployment and inflation rates.  I believe that then candidate Governor Jimmy Carter used it to beat up President Gerald Ford in 1976.   In the boomerang of boomerangs, it came back to bite now President Carter against candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Speaking of biting the family budget, I learned yesterday that it took $43 to fill up our car!  It was around $30 when the Orange Man left for Florida.  Anyway, the gas tank was more than a nice lunch at an Italian eatery.

What makes gasoline prices so politically difficult?  Everybody pays at the pump, specially the middle class.  In other words, the media cannot protect Biden because it hits your wallet every time you go to the service station.

In contrast, the media can stop talking about the border.  It can’t over gasoline prices because everybody drives a car and some do so for business.

So the “I” word is here and I don’t mean impeachment or investigation of January 6th.

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