People walk through a shopping mall in Manhattan in New York, on Jan. 12, 2022. Newly released data shows that inflation grew at its fastest 12-month pace in nearly 40 years during the month of December 2021. It showed a 7 percent jump from a year earlier, as prices rose on everything from gas to furniture for U.S. shoppers. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
With inflation now advancing at a 7 percent pace and producer prices sprinting ahead even faster—at 10 percent over this time in 2021—consumers are getting squeezed. On average, the purchasing power of paychecks shrank in 2021 by more than 2 percent when accounting for the higher prices.
Stephen Moore
Author
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, chief economist at FreedomWorks, and co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. He served as a senior economic adviser to Donald Trump. His latest book is “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Impoverishing America.”
