Tuesday, 9 April 2024

How's inflation in your state?

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The Daily Money

ALL THE MONEY NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Tue Apr 9 2024

Daniel de Visé | Personal Finance Reporter

Good morning! It's Daniel de Visé with your Daily Money.

After easing substantially in 2023, inflation has remained stubbornly elevated this year, Paul Davidson reports.

Yet, the country's 3.2% annual inflation rate, based on the Labor Department's consumer price index (CPI), masks notable differences among states. Some have reached the 2% annual inflation goal set by the Federal Reserve. Others have not.

How is your state doing?

Engine cover falls off Boeing plane

Things falling off planes has emerged as an unsettling trend this year. In the latest incident, a Southwest Airlines plane heading to Houston turned back on Sunday after an engine covering fell off, Sarah Al-Arshani reports.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the Boeing 737-800 returned to Denver safely and was towed to the gate. The incident is under investigation.

Needless to say, the narrative reminds us of an episode in January, in which a window blew out of a different Boeing plane in mid-flight.

Read the story.

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Average salaries and wages in the United States have been increasing year after year, but the landscape looks different depending on a range of factors, from where you live to how old you are. For example, on average, Mississippi is the lowest-earning state, with an average income of around $48,000.

If you're wondering how your earnings compare to the rest of the U.S., here's a comprehensive breakdown of average salaries in the country.

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer news from USA TODAY. We break down financial news and provide the TLDR version: how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.

Daniel de Visé covers personal finance for USA Today.

Where is inflation still high? See the list of states

Inflation, as measured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Summary, jumped 9.1% in June compared to June of 2021. The number was higher than in any month since November 2008, with the price of fuel oil soaring. The news was staggeringly bad for an American economy that is likely on its way into recession because people's purchasing power has been sharply eroded. (Inflation is an even greater hardship for people who are already struggling financially. This is the city where the most people rely on food stamps in every state .) The debate among policy makers and economists about how to best tame inflation quickly has not yielded a solution. The Federal Reserve continues to raise rates, one of the few weapons it has in its central bank arsenal. Some economists believe the Fed has been too slow. If it had begun raising rates earlier, as far back as last year, inflation may not have surged as much. Others think that if the Fed raised rates in 2021, it would have undermined economic expansion and pushed unemployment higher. Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, commented about the inflation to new outlets, saying: "This report will make for very uncomfortable reading at the Fed." Among the most pessimistic experts who have formulated a suggested path out of rising inflation is Larry Summers, former U.S. treasury secretary and former president of Harvard. He is also considered among the most gifted economists of his generation. Summers recently told an audience at the London School of Economics: "We need five years of unemployment above 5% to contain inflation -- in other words, we need two years of 7.5% unemployment or five years of 6% unemployment or one year of 10% unemployment." Unemployment has not been over 7% since some of the worst days of the Great Recession. Inflation's effects have been uneven. While the year-over-year figure for all goods and services measured by the BLS in June was 9.1%, some items were up more than 20%. To determine the household items that are soaring in price, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the BLS' Consumer Price Index Summary June report. Prices are compared to June 2021. Gasoline prices lead the way with at least a 52% increase, depending on the type. Fuel oil prices nearly doubled. Some staple items on the American dinner table also rose. Butter prices rose 21%, and egg prices were 33% higher. Each of the 40 items on this list has jumped in price by 14% or more, with items ranging from baby food to milk and cookies to car body work. (Also see, this is the price of bacon and eggs the year you were born .) The new CPI report makes one thing very clear. Inflation is so high across so many goods and services that Americans buy that there is no reason to believe the pace of the increase will come down soon.

U.S. inflation has eased notably but some states are well above the average while others are below. See the states with highest and lowest price gains

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