The new inflation numbers are out, and if you haven’t seen them already, you’ll be relieved to know how good they are:
Inflation Soars 8.5 Percent in July, Hovering around Four-Decade Highhttps://t.co/79ifHU3AD7
— Ellen Carmichael 🌻 (@ellencarmichael) August 10, 2022
OK, so the numbers don’t sound good. Look at them again:
Consumer inflation in July cools to *just* 8.5% down from 9.1% in June. Wages are growing at 5.2% so those gains wiped out by inflation. Real wages declining. Energy prices still up 32.9% in the last year.
Fuel oil +75.6%. Gasoline all types +44%.— Dagen McDowell (@dagenmcdowell) August 10, 2022
OK, so the numbers still don’t sound good. Let’s try one more time:
Price increases over last year (CPI report)…
Fuel Oil: +75.6%
Gasoline: +44.0%
Gas Utilities: +30.5%
Electricity: +15.2%
Food at home: +13.1%
New Cars: +10.4%
Transportation: +9.2%
Overall CPI: +8.5%
Food away from home: 7.6%
Used Cars: +6.6%
Shelter: +5.7%
Medical Care: +5.1%— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) August 10, 2022
Shelter is the single biggest component of CPI (33% of the Index) and is still being wildly understated (@ +5.7% YoY) with rents up 12.4% over the last year and home prices up 19.7%. Which means that the true inflation rate is much higher than 8.5%. pic.twitter.com/xCRJRjFgb4
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) August 10, 2022
OK, so the numbers still still don’t sound good.
Maybe we’re just missing the right perspective. We’re looking at the numbers from a conservative perspective, but liberals have a much rosier read on the situation.
2005 inflation rate 3.39% WORST ECONOMY SINCE HERBERT HOOVER
2018 inflation rate 2.49%: MISERABLE FAILURE
2022 inflation rate 8.5%: SUCCESS! THANKS BIDEN!
…and that’s before the massive spending from the Inflation Reduction Act kicks in
— Razor (@hale_razor) August 10, 2022
8.5 percent inflation is good in the same way an X-ray showing your ankle is only sprained is good.
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) August 10, 2022
dems celebrating 8.5% like someone just stabbed you in the face instead of shooting you
— Jessica O’Donnell (@heckyessica) August 10, 2022
Dems are definitely in glass-half-full mode over inflation. Which, of course, means that the media are, too.
Inflation in June: > 9%
Inflation in July: 8.5%Most of the "news" media: Inflation is taking a breather, plunges to almost zero percent. https://t.co/vdEq9WuUen
— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) August 10, 2022
That’s pretty much where the media are at, yes.
We’ll start with AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller’s take, which, while not awesome, is probably the least offensive of the bunch:
WASHINGTON (AP) — US inflation slows from a 4-decade peak to a still-high 8.5% over the past year.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) August 10, 2022
That’s about as accurate a media tweet as you’re gonna get.
FWIW this is a much more accurate framing than what several other news outlets are using. https://t.co/6n5JU4MHr0
— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 10, 2022
The bar is pretty low, though, as you’ll see.
A real media outlet would report: "America's inflation crisis continued punishing American consumers in July, with the CPI remaining 17 percent and the government's figure holding steady at 8.5 percent"
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 10, 2022
That’d be nice … but it’s asking an awful lot of the people for whom our expectations have been steadily declining.
Here’s how Washington Post economic columnist Heather Long summarized the data:
Inflation dropped to 8.5% in July (down from 9.1% in June).
Big declines in gas prices (-7.7% in July) and airfares (-7.8% in July) helped a lot.
But…grocery prices, rent and electricity continue to rise pic.twitter.com/sVO5dr6eco
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) August 10, 2022
At least she acknowledges that prices of basic necessities are still on the rise. She probably should’ve led with that, though, since more Americans care a lot more about stuff like food than they do about airfares.
Food, rent, and electricity are kind of important. https://t.co/5za2DllIuX
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) August 10, 2022
They’re kind of extremely important.
Unless, of course, you work at CNN, where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter:
US inflation took a breather in July, thanks to the falling cost of food and gas, as consumer prices grew at a slower pace than in previous months https://t.co/ic28b4qKbK
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) August 10, 2022
A breather! That’s one way to put it, we suppose …
Inflation is near historic highs, and this is how CNN covers it. https://t.co/LnaiJaVEXH
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) August 10, 2022
Holy crap. CNN is celebrating 8.5% inflation.
Talk about out of touch! pic.twitter.com/Z8cyOAZyh1
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 10, 2022
Incredible https://t.co/gYArHlwqRF
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) August 10, 2022
8.5% year over year inflation is not “took a breather”
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) August 10, 2022
I’m a slow reader but where in this report do food prices drop? pic.twitter.com/1paE3dWIXX
— Jared Bourquin (@JaredBourquin) August 10, 2022
Nowhere. Nowhere in that report.
To their credit, Axios acknowledged that food prices rose. Unfortunately, their overall take was hot garbage:
JUST IN: Consumer prices were unchanged in July, as plunging prices for gasoline dragged the Consumer Price Index down to zero.
Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, rose only 0.3%. https://t.co/U24gL7UTkC
— Axios (@axios) August 10, 2022
And here’s Axios’ chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin:
July was a huge inflation relief month for American consumers.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) August 10, 2022
That’s definitely news to us.
In what way is this huge?
— Arthur Boreman Once Held His Breath for 30 Seconds (@ArthurBoreman) August 10, 2022
In what way was it relief? I missed that part of it
— TroubleMum (@Fleebus4) August 10, 2022
Narrator: It’s not. At least we’re not feeling relieved. Are you?
Inflation finally flattening out with an annualized 8.5% increase is not "huge inflation relief." My word, dude. https://t.co/LbMnd5NTOh
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 10, 2022
Wut? Because it didn't continue to climb there is some relief?
That absurd.
— ₿ Michelle Ray ₿ (@GaltsGirl) August 10, 2022
Kind of like "we only increased our budget by 15% instead of 20% so we saved 5%!"
— Ken Pennsylvania (@WhatAboutKen4) August 10, 2022
They want us to take to the streets for a ticker-tape parade.
False. Prices are still up 8.5% over last year.
This is propaganda. https://t.co/3EoDo4AP97
— Bob Weave (@lowkeyrbe) August 10, 2022
Propaganda is right.
"economic correspondent"
This is why media's reputation hovers right above used toilet paper https://t.co/fByHIzMEFm
— ₿ Michelle Ray ₿ (@GaltsGirl) August 10, 2022
Next time a smug journalist wonders aloud why the public’s faith in the media has evaporated, just show them this post.
What Americans really need right now, aside from everyone in the Biden administration to resign, is a media that can be honest with them. Unfortunately, what we need is not what we have.
Even if they actually understand that the inflation numbers are bad and are just pretending the numbers are good, when it comes to understanding the American public, they just don’t have a clue.
Journalists are not intelligent people. https://t.co/qdn26zqnCY
— Federalist Muskrat 🇺🇸 (@Muskrat__) August 10, 2022
Maybe the media should take a breather.
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