Lucia Mutikani
3 minute read
Shoppers browse in a supermarket while wearing masks to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in north St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. April 4, 2020. Picture taken April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant
U.S. consumer prices surged in April, with a measure of underlying inflation blowing past the Federal Reserveâs 2% target and posting its largest annual gain since 1992, reflecting pent-up demand as the economy reopens.
The strong inflation readings reported by the Commerce Department on Friday had been widely anticipated as the COVID-19 pandemic s grip eases, thanks to vaccinations, and will have no impact on monetary policy. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly stated that higher inflation will be transitory, with supply chains expected to adapt and become more efficient.
Reuters
4 minute read
FILE PHOTO: People line up outside a newly reopened career center for in-person appointments in Louisville, U.S., April 15, 2021. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud
1/PRIME TIME PAYROLLS
How fast is the U.S. recovery? Friday s U.S. monthly jobs report will add fuel to the debate.
In April, U.S. job growth unexpectedly slowed, possibly because of shortages of workers and raw material. Non-farm payrolls added a mere 266,000 jobs compared to predictions for more than 3-1/2 times that.
Optimism over jobs has offset concerns about rising inflation and diminishing government financial support, lifting May U.S. consumer confidence to a 14-month high.
That doesnât happen to us. Or does it? How many times a year, or a week even, do we feel like we are getting hit by something, at work or at home, thatâs knocking us more than 5 inches off our mark.
Here in the US, we struggle on so many frontsâjustice, education, election, immigration, infrastructure, prison, jobs, housing, climateâand there is no telling when we will get hit, as individuals or as a nation, with a major destabilizing crisis on any one of these fronts.
We struggle with each other on the best ways to approach any or all of it, based on our core values as individuals. Then we struggle as the groups we clump ourselves into, where we are not 100% alike, but enough so to pit ourselves against the others who are not.