Varney warns of US inflation spiral amid Russia-Ukraine war
White House, Fed grapples with rising costs amid Russia-Ukraine war
"Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney warns of an "inflation spiral" sweeping through the U.S. as he scrutinizes surging gas prices and goods during his "My Take" Monday.
STUART VARNEY: This is what everyone's talking about: the gas price spike. If you were out and about this weekend, you couldn't help but notice.
The national average for regular gas is now $4.07. That’s only 5 cents below the all-time high price back in 2008. In California, the price is off the charts.
Worse, from an economic standpoint, the price of diesel is skyrocketing too. $4.61 per gallon, as of this morning. Farmers, truckers, delivery, and construction – all use diesel. Just imagine a trucker with a 300-gallon tank. She's paying over $1,400 for a fill-up. A month ago it was $1,100.
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Inflation is not limited to energy. The price of wheat has risen an astonishing 50 percent since February 24th. When the war began. You get a shock at the gas station. You get a shock at the grocery store. That's inflation.
What's Biden going to do about it? Not much. He talks about spending more money to cut costs. Cue the eye roll.
What's the Fed doing about it? Jay Powell will raise interest rates a quarter-point this month. That won't do much short term.
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In short, we are in an inflation spiral. And it’s not going away. When we had similar spikes in the past, they were followed by a recession.
Bad for workers. Bad for the economy. And very bad for the Democrats in November.