I’m sure that you didn’t need the Labor Department’s report to learn that.
The big rise in prices cut deeply into consumers’ earning power with average weekly wages, after adjusting for inflation, dropping by 0.9 percent in June, the biggest monthly decline since 1984.
The report on retail inflation followed similarly grim news on Tuesday that wholesale prices had shot up by 1.8 percent in June.
U.S. stocks looked to be headed for a mixed opening amid worries of how rising prices may affect the economy.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Tuesday that the Fed was concerned about the threats posed by rising inflation.
Bernanke said that the “upside risks to the inflation outlook have intensified lately, as the rising prices of energy and some other commodities have led to a sharp pickup in inflation and some measures of inflation expectations have moved higher.”
Last week I started to pay for my groceries and realized that I’d left my credit card at home. I told the cashier it would take me five minutes to run and get the card and he responded “Hurry up. We’re about to rise prices.” He laughed but I don’t think he was joking:
Food prices also showed a big increase in June, rising by 0.7 percent, more than double the 0.3 percent increase of May. Vegetable prices shot up by 6.1 percent, the biggest increase in nearly three years.
