The gut-wrenching reality of Joe Biden’s disastrous economic policies is inescapable.

Everywhere you look and everyone you speak to shows signs of fatigue dealing with the added pressure of making a living during a massive inflationary period, and we can thank Joe Biden for that.

In only one year’s time, the Biden administration has successfully destroyed everything that made Donald Trump’s economy work for essentially every taxpaying American.

Trump warned of this, too. But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to convince Americans that a vote for Joe Biden means a vote for an economic recession — or was it?

Producer prices ticked down slightly to a still-blistering 11% for the year ending in April, according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, close to the highest on record.

[source: The Washington Examiner]

The inflation rate in Tuesday’s producer price index report was down by 0.5 percentage points from the previous month, although that decline was less than anticipated by forecasters, adding to concerns about inflation.

Tuesday’s news signals more pain to come for households. The producer price index gauges the wholesale prices of goods, which are eventually passed down to consumers.

The news came right after a report for the month of April found that consumer prices increased by 8.3% — near the fastest annual rate in four decades. The high rate of inflation has damaged President Joe Biden politically and undercut support for his spending proposals.

In order to drive down inflation, the Federal Reserve has begun hiking interest rates. The central bank announced in March that it would raise its interest rate target by a quarter of a percentage point in an effort to bring down the higher prices.

This month, the Fed announced that it would increase its interest rate target by half a percentage point. The Fed typically increases rates incrementally by just a quarter of a percentage point, so the more aggressive tack is akin to two rate hikes at once and shows that the central bank is increasingly worried about growing prices.

Republicans have been seizing on both the Fed for its perceived sluggishness in acting and on the Biden administration for trillions of dollars in spending during President Joe Biden’s first year in office.

There are also fears that the Fed’s actions could cause the economy to crater into a recession, a prospect that would damage Democrats going into this year’s midterm elections.

Author: Monica Hedren