US inflation below 3% in a boon for Kamala Harris – Technologist

It hadn’t happened since March 2021, at the start of President Joe Biden’s term: Inflation in the United States fell back below 3% in July, to 2.9% year-on-year in July, according to figures released Wednesday, August 14, by the Labor Department. “We’ve won the battle against inflation. It’s time for the Fed [Federal Reserve] to begin cutting rates,” Biden’s former economic adviser Bharat Ramamurti immediately declared on X.

This slightly better-than-expected figure paves the way for a rate cut by the Fed at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee meeting on September 18. It is a boon for Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for the November 5 presidential election, and helps the party’s teams defend their record, Biden’s tenure having been marked by an unprecedented upturn in inflation, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.

Biden was more cautious than his former adviser. “We have more work to do to lower costs for hardworking Americans, but we are making real progress, with wages rising faster than prices for 17 months in a row,” the Democratic president said in a statement on Wednesday.

The vice president talks about the high cost of living

In contrast, Republican candidate Donald Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, blasted the Democrat’s record in office, substituting the term “Bidenflation” for “Kamalanomics Inflation.” “It has been 24 days and Kamala Harris continues to duck and hide from the media – no interviews and no press conferences since she announced. Since Kamala is not doing any press, she can’t explain why crippling inflation rates have resulted in a 20% increase in prices since she took office,” charged Cheung.

Cumulative inflation since Biden’s arrival in the White House is indeed 20%. Voters have been particularly wary on this subject, but the latest polls show that Harris suffers from a lesser disadvantage. According to a survey by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan, published on August 7, Americans trust her more to manage the economy than Trump (42% vs. 41%). This represents a 7-point jump on Biden’s rating the previous month, with Trump’s figure remaining unchanged.

Harris plans to set out her economic vision in a speech in North Carolina on Friday, but without going into detail, to preserve the ambiguity that reassures centrist voters. So far, in her rallies, the Democratic candidate has not mentioned the word inflation but refers to the high cost of living. Like Biden, she has chosen to attack companies accused of having excessively high margins. “President Biden and I are fighting for Americans while taking on the corporations who add unnecessary hassles and waste families’ time and money through excessive paperwork, hold times, and other unfair practices,” tweeted the vice president on August 12.

You have 32.4% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.