JOE PASSES BUCK

Admits cri$i$, but blames Russia

President Biden admitted Wednesday that inflation was stuck at “unacceptably high” levels after the annual rate surged a higher-than-expected 8.3% in April — but then blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine for the price increases rather than government spending.

The data indicated inflation had ticked down slightly from its 41-year high of 8.5% in March — but not as much as economists had forecast, highlighting the tricky task ahead for the Federal Reserve as it aims to tamp down price increases without triggering a recession.

One expert warned the downtick could be short-lived.

“With the annual rate ticking down from 8.5% to 8.3%, it can be tempting to say we’ve seen the peak, but we’ve also been head-faked before, as was the case last August,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

Consumer wallop

On a monthly basis, the Consumer Price Index, a key inflation gauge that tracks what consumers pay for goods and services, rose 0.3% from March to April. More disturbingly, the core CPI, or the price of goods excluding volatile food and energy costs, was up 6.2% on an annualized basis — higher than the projected 6%.

Increases in the costs of shelter, food, airline fares and new cars drove the increase in April prices, according to the Labor Department. Energy prices were down, with the gasoline index falling 6.1% in April compared to the previous month. However, the energy index was still up about 30% year-over-year.

And gasoline prices have surged to fresh record highs in May — a development not reflected in Wednesday’s data.

In an initial statement, Biden said that while it was “heartening to see that annual inflation moderated in April, the fact remains that inflation is unacceptably high.”

The president then sought to point the finger at congressional Republicans, claiming that “their only plan is to raise taxes on working families, taking even more money out of their pockets.”

‘Putin’s price hike’

Biden concluded by vowing that “the fight against global supply chain issues related to the pandemic and Putin’s price hike will continue every day.”

While the White House is fond of blaming the supply chain crisis and the war in Eastern Europe for inflation, a late March study by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said that in the final quarter of 2021, about 3 percentage points of inflation — nearly half the total increases — may have been caused by government pandemic spending.

At an afternoon event in Illinois, Biden railed against another one of his favored bogeymen: large meat processors the administration claims are unfairly restricting competition.

“Fifty years ago, hog farmers got 40 to 60 cents for each dollar the family spent raising that hog. Today, it’s about 19 cents,” he said. “As big companies made massive profits, the prices you see at the grocery stores have gone up and the prices farmers receive has gone down. This reflects a market distorted by the lack of competition.”