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I confess I'm no expert in economics, but this is just plain stupid:
White House points to culprit behind soaring prices
15 Dec, 2021 02:54
December 14, 2021 © Reuters / Evelyn Hockstein
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki blamed an increase in the cost of groceries, including that of meat, on the “greed” of big corporations, accusing them of profiteering from the pandemic amid record-breaking inflation.
After being asked on Tuesday for her opinion on the argument that high inflation in the US is being driven by “corporate greed,” Psaki responded that President Joe Biden and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack “have both spoken to what we’ve seen as the greed of meat conglomerates.”
“That is an area, one where people go to the grocery store and they’re trying to buy a pound of meat, two pounds of meat, 10 pounds of meat. The prices are higher,” she said, claiming that you “could call it corporate greed, sure.”
“You could call it jacking up prices during a pandemic,” Psaki added.
I'm pretty sure Jen is not that stupid! Biden and Vilsack on the other hand....
The press secretary then pointed out that “there are other areas where we’ve seen increases because of supply-chain issues and we’re seeing those increases around the world, as it relates to gas prices, oil supply, and things along those lines.” However, she concluded that “there’s some areas where we have seen corporations benefit, profit from the pandemic, and certainly the president would agree with that component.”
Meat is not the only product to have shot up in price in the US since Biden replaced former president Donald Trump in January.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed last week that inflation in the US rose by 6.8% between November 2020 and November 2021 – the highest since 1982.
Gasoline has risen by 58.1%, while new vehicles and used cars have shot up by 11.1% and 31.4% respectively. Food has risen by 6.1%.
Psaki’s comments drew pushback online. Conservative commentators accused the White House of misleading the public on why prices were so high.
It's truly frightening that the President of the USA, or the PM of Canada for that matter, don't realize that printing kazillions of dollars causes inflation, and that raising fuel prices affects everything that moves.
“It’s amazing how this ‘greed of meat conglomerates’ didn’t exist at this level until Joe Biden took office and inflation shot up. Weird coincidence,” wrote conservative commentator Buck Sexton, while Manhattan Institute senior fellow Brian Riedl joked, “Time to break up ‘big meat’ – who after decades of getting only 2% greedier per year decided to get extra greedy in 2021.”
Turkish stock market halts trading as lira crashes
17 Dec, 2021 14:04
The Turkish stock exchange suspended trading after the national currency fell below 17 lira per US dollar on Friday. The lira has lost more than half of its value against the US dollar since the beginning of 2021.
“As of 16.24 (Istanbul time) transactions have been temporarily halted on the market of all shares of our stock exchange,” the exchange said in a statement.
The country’s currency has collapsed amid pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the central bank to lower borrowing costs to boost the growth of Turkey’s struggling economy.
On Thursday, the Turkish central bank announced it was cutting the key interest rate from 15% to 14%, despite inflation running at 21%.
Since September, central bank has cut the key interest rate by 400 basis points. Over the past two years, the regulator has intervened three times to keep the lira afloat by selling dollars.
The state monetary policy, along with significant lira depreciation, will further weigh on inflation – it is expected to skyrocket to 30% year-on-year in early 2022, according to S&P Global Ratings, which has downgraded its outlook on the nation’s sovereign credit rating to negative.
EU inflation soars to 30-year high
17 Dec, 2021 12:35
Annual consumer inflation in 19 EU states surged last month to a record 4.9% from 4.1% a month earlier, data from the European statistical agency Eurostat shows.
A price increase of this scale was last recorded in the bloc in July 1991.
The figure, however, was in line with the Daily FX analysts’ forecast and the preliminary estimate.
The rise is a giant leap from last year, when Europe recorded a deflation of 0.3%.
In November alone, consumer prices in the euro area jumped by 0.4%.
Core annual inflation, which excludes volatile costs on energy and unprocessed food, also surged to 2.6% from 2% last month.
Experts say that higher energy prices and lingering supply chain disruptions are the key drivers of the price surge, having significantly slowed the EU’s post-pandemic economic recovery.
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