Producer Prices Skyrocketed Nearly 10% In December, Biggest Gain Ever Recorded

Wholesale prices rose at the fastest pace in recorded history last month, according to new data released by the U.S. government on Thursday.

“The Producer Price Index for final demand increased 0.2 percent in December, seasonally adjusted,” the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. “This rise followed advances of 1.0 percent in November and 0.6 percent in October. On an unadjusted basis, final demand prices moved up 9.7 percent in 2021, the largest calendar-year increase since data were first calculated in 2010.”

The news comes after a poll released on Wednesday by Quinnipiac University showed that only one-third of Americans approve of the job that Democrat President Joe Biden is doing in office.

“Americans give President Joe Biden a negative 33 – 53 percent job approval rating, while 13 percent did not offer an opinion,” Quinnipiac University reported. “In November 2021, Americans gave Biden a negative 36 – 53 percent job approval rating with 10 percent not offering an opinion.”

Biden’s approval rating from Democrats sank by double digits from 87% in November to 75% in the new poll. The percentage of Democrats who now disapprove of him doubled from 7% to 14%. Only 1 in 4 Independents approved of Biden’s job performance while only 2% (not a typo) of Republicans approved of Biden’s job performance.

Biden earned bad scores on major issues, including:

• the economy: 34 percent approve, while 57 percent disapprove;
• foreign policy: 35 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove;
• the response to the coronavirus: 39 percent approve, while 55 percent disapprove.

The poll found that only 2% of Americans believe that the state of the economy is “excellent”, 26% say that it’s “good”, 35% say that it’s “not so good”, and 35% say that it’s “poor.”

More… Biden approval on:

Coronavirus 39%
Economy 34%
Foreign Policy 35%

State of economy:
2% Excellent
26% Good
35% Not so good
35% Poor

15% say economy getting better
54% getting worse
30% staying the samehttps://t.co/7KcCx5CTXj

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) January 12, 2022

“A separate report Thursday showed that initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 8 totaled 230,000, well above the 200,000 estimate and a considerable increase from the previous week’s 207,000,” CNBC reported. “However, the longer-term trajectory for unemployment was lower. Continuing claims, which run a week behind the headline number, fell by 194,000 to 1.56 million, the lowest level since June 2, 1973.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated that the U.S. central bank plans to taper off its support of the U.S. economy in an effort to combat soaring inflation.

“As we move through this year, if things develop as expected, we’ll be normalizing policy, meaning we’re going to end our asset purchases in March, meaning we’ll be raising rates over the course of the year,” Powell said. “At some point perhaps later this year we will start to allow the balance sheet to run off, and that’s just the road to normalizing policy.”

“It is really time for us to begin to move away from those emergency pandemic settings to a more normal level,” he said. “It’s a long road to normal from where we are.”

Related:

• Here Are The Products That Will Empty Your Wallet As Inflation Soars
• In 2021, Inflation Gave The Typical American A 2.4% Pay Cut

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