Inflation due to the Iran War is wiping out the economy

Americans are being hit with soaring inflation due to the war in Iran as prices are up 3.8 percent from a year ago. The president and Republicans want to run on a strong economy heading into the midterm season, but the latest Consumer Price Index on Tuesday showed consumers are feeling the pain. The higher prices have largely been driven by the skyrocketing cost of energy. Gasoline prices were up 5.4 percent in April and more than 28 percent from a year ago. Oil was up 5.8 percent last month, a slower increase than in March. It’s unclear when Americans will see any relief at the pump. The ongoing rise in costs has completely wiped out any wage gains Americans have made in the last year. Wages were up 3.6 percent. Consumer prices spiked big time, much of it driven by energy prices rising due to Trump’s war. The consumer price index is up 3.8 percent in April relative to last year. That’s up from 2.4 percent before the war. But even if you take out volatile food and energy costs, prices still rose by the same amount. Trump’s tariffs and his broader economic strategy had already caused the economy to slow, job growth to slow, and inflation to reignite prior to the war. And the more data that we’ve gotten, the more it’s clear he took an extraordinary risk by engaging in this war, given that things were already heading in the wrong direction in the economy. We now have the lowest consumer confidence recorded in 65 years. And the inflation numbers are ugly. Trump's economic program clearly isn’t working. His war has failed. His tariffs, which were a central bludgeon he was using against the Chinese, were just declared illegal for the second time.