The government slowed down inflation, hooray!…. except that “regular people” still think the economy is in bad shape.
Pay for U.S. workers has remained stagnant (ie, effectively declined) for the last decade+. Our economy is so dependent on consumer purchasing that prices for consumer goods also had to remain artificially suppressed (ie, effectively decline) over all that time so the U.S. could continue to have an economy. In a few months we suddenly saw the inflation that should have racked up slowly over 10+ years. Prices aren’t going to go back down because we exist in a global economy where they can’t. It doesn’t matter that inflation is slowing down when prices are staying high and wages continue to stagnate. The economy won’t truly recover until wages increase to match (or ideally exceed) inflation.
Liz Welsh 