Between groceries and restaurants, Americans are spending more of their income on food than they have in 30 years.
That’s according to the latest data from the USDA, which shows that U.S. consumers spent more than 11% of their disposable income on eating — whether at home or at a restaurant — in 2022, the highest percentage since 1991.
“This is really a metric that’s about the share of our disposable personal income which the USDA tracks, and which recently was at essentially a 31-year high,” Jesse Newman, food reporter for the Wall Street Journal, told CBS News.
Experts say painfully high food prices, and ongoing inflation more generally, help explain why many Americans are down on the economy despite low unemployment, rising wages and steady economic growth. Inflation is expected to continue slowing this year, with the National Association for Business Economists on Monday forecasting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — a basket of common goods and services — will decline to an annual rate of 2.4% this year, compared with 4.1% in 2023 and 8% in 2022.
Gee, I wonder what could be causing this?
“There are other factors that contribute to inflation that have not received enough attention. One of those factors is extreme price hikes — in other words, companies raising prices far more than required to offset higher costs even when accounting for shifts in supply and demand, resulting in the highest profit margins we have ever seen in the last 70 years,”
https://thehill.com/business/3756457-corporate-profits-hit-record-high-in-third-quarter-amid-40-year-high-inflation/
So, price gouging.
Yup. Nothing like decades of GQP policies allowing companies to create what are essentially monopolies. Merger after merger without government intervention means competition is dying and companies can and do charge whatever they want.