Inflation rose again in July 2024 for the 42nd consecutive month since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021. Yet, corporate media demand that Americans celebrate the 2.9 percent price hike plaguing their pocketbooks as an “inflation milestone.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index for last month, Americans paid 2.2 percent more for food, 4.9 percent more for electricity, 5.1 percent more for shelter, 8.8 percent more for transportation, and 3.3 percent more for medical care than they did in July 2023. Even compared to May 2024, July’s inflation showed a 0.1 to 0.9 range of price hikes across most basic goods and services.
Outlets like CNN, however, used the data to claim that inflation “slowed more than expected.”
MSNBC marveled that inflation “falls below 3 percent for the first time since 2021.”
The New York Times took it even further when the publication claimed that “Easing Inflation Has Democrats Tasting Victory.” The article quoted former deputy director of the National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti, who triumphantly declared, “We’ve won the battle against inflation.”
The positive percent change on each CPI report dating back to February 2018, however, indicates that Americans are experiencing skyrocketing costs more than they were this time last month, last year, or even during the Trump presidency.
The media’s optimistic portrayal of the dismal inflation statistics strongly contradicts Americans’ feelings about the nation’s financial standing. Polls indicate that inflation is and
