The latest consumer price index numbers came out for February 2024.  The CPI was up 0.4% for the month, while the year-over-year stands at 3.2%.  This was a little higher than expected.

The median CPI also came in at 0.4% for the month.  The year-over-year median CPI now stands at 4.6%.

It’s interesting that the market is expecting a rate cut by the Fed in June, even though price inflation seems to be a stubborn problem.

CNBC ran an article detailing some of the specific price increases.  The most unbelievable thing is the rise of 20.6% in vehicle insurance.  Of course, it may not be unbelievable if you’ve had to pay it lately.

Some food prices and items are actually down.  Others are up.  A few other notable things are rent (up 5.8%) and motor vehicle repairs (up 8.5%).

This is why it is significant.  These few items make up a huge chunk of a middle-class American budget.

If you don’t own a house and you rent, imagine if you paid just $1,000 per month in rent last year.  Now it is up 5.8% or $58 per month.  That adds up month after month.

If your car insurance was $1,000 last year, now it is up 20.6% or $206 per year.  And if you have a vehicle repair that would have cost $2,000 last year, it now will be 8.5% higher, or $170 more.

These may be very conservative numbers for some people.  Rents are much higher than $1,000 per month in most cities for anything livable.  Many renters are probably paying an additional $1,000 or more extra per year.

So just the cost of driving your car and renting your apartment may have gone up $1,500 for the year.  If you make $60,000 per year and get a 3% raise in pay, that is an increase of $1,800 per year.  After taxes, that barely covers the expenses to drive and rent your apartment.  We haven’t even started considering food and other items.

Bidenomics

This is why it is a joke that Biden or any of his handlers would be even attempting to brag about the economy.  There are some people who will actually try to justify the state of the economy by saying that the stock market is up and housing values are still high.  The higher housing prices only price out those who don’t already own.  There are few people who are selling and making a good profit to then only rent (at higher prices).

The stock market may be nice for some people with a 401k plan, but that doesn’t apply to some people.  And for others, it doesn’t do them any particular good right now, as that is their retirement money and they may not even be able to access it.

For most people, they just see their expenses going higher and wages not keeping up.  This is the true state of the economy, and it is hard to trick people into believing that they are doing well when they aren’t.

Even if a recession doesn’t officially hit before November 2024, it is hard to imagine Biden being reelected with this disaster of an economy.  It is curious why Republicans who were running for president did not emphasize this issue.  They could have easily acknowledged that average Americans were getting the short end of the stick.  Instead, they were too busy assuring us of their allegiance to Ukraine.