The April inflation number is out – and it’s 2.4% for the year but also, for the month it registered at 0.2% (which if multiplied by 12 months is also 2.4%). In March, the number was a negative 0.1%, i.e. prices went down. So on average the last two months, inflation was 0.5% or if measured over 12 months, it would be 0.6% or about one-half of one percent. The Fed apparently likes to look at the inflation rate over the last 12 months vs. I would look at most recent monthly rate and then look at the pressures that may increase or decrease prices going forward.
But we all know the Fed acts too late, so under Powell, they’re going to wait until they see what the past holds rather than looking to the future. The Fed should know that all this back and forth on tariffs creates uncertainty, and with uncertainty, businesses will not risk increasing prices, which leads to lower inflation readings.
And surprise, Trump has managed to reel in China already! So the so-called threat of tariffs given all the tariff deals that Trump is inking is not even going to materialize, and therefore, there won’t be the big increases in prices that Powell predicted. (I guess tariffs are transitory! haha.)
I think the next thing Powell will claim is that there is the risk that the economy will grow too fast and therefore, he won’t decrease interest rates. It’ll never end with this guy. But then this is the guy who reeved up the printing presses and created $6 trillion in new money supply, creating inflation. Asking the guy that created the problem to solve the problem rarely works. In government it usually takes new management to fix a major problem. Is it time for new management? Only Trump can decide.
Wisconsin Right Now is a news organization focused on covering the news from a conservative point of view, in particular on politics and policy issues through analysis and opinions, and is protected by the first amendment of the United States constitution. WRN does not make endorsements of candidates or direct readers to vote for or against any candidate or issue. On October 18 and November 23, 2023 Donald Trump tweeted out on Trump’s Truth Social account T. Wall’s October 6th column on Trump’s property valuations. T. Wall has appeared on Fox News, Jesse Waters Show on Fox, Newsmax, CBS, NBC, Spectrum News 1, USA Today, X.com, YouTube, and numerous Madison and Milwaukee news programs and local newspapers (Wisconsin State Journal, Capital Times, Middleton Review, Middleton Times Tribune, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a dozen other Wisconsin papers) and previously wrote a column for InBusiness magazine and the Middleton Times Tribune for five years each. T. Wall holds a degree from the UW in economics and an M.S. in real estate analysis and valuation and his full time career is
as a real estate developer. Disclaimer: The opinions of the writer are not necessarily those of this publication or the left!
