Business

(NEW YORK) — For 20 years, Donald Trump and his family enriched themselves through “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentations,” New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges in a new lawsuit that accuses the Trumps of “grossly” inflating the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars and cheating lenders and others with false and misleading financial statements.

The civil lawsuit, filed Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks a $250 million judgment and a prohibition on any of the Trumps leading a company in the state of New York.

Among other allegations, the suit claims that the former president’s Florida estate and golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, was valued as high as $739 million, but should have been valued at around one-tenth that amount, at $75 million. The suit says that higher valuation was “based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use even though Mr. Trump himself signed deeds donating his residential development rights and sharply restricting changes to the property.”

“We found that Mr, Trump, his children, and the corporation used more than 200 false asset valuations over a ten year period,” James said at a press conference announcing the charges.

James is referring her findings to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who could possibly open a criminal investigation into bank fraud, according to a footnote in the lawsuit.

Through “persistent and repeated business fraud,” the Trumps convinced banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than deserved, according to the lawsuit, which named the former president, three of his adult children, the company, and two of its executives, Allan Weisselberg and Jeff McConney.

“Mr. Trump made known through Mr. Weisselberg that he wanted his net worth on the Statements to increase — a desire Mr. Weisselberg and others carried out year after year in their fraudulent preparation of the Statements,” the lawsuit said. “The scheme to inflate Mr. Trump’s net worth also remained consistent year after year.”

Weisselberg last month pleaded guilty to unrelated criminal charges of tax evasion brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been conducting a parallel investigation.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt” by an attorney general he has called “racist.” James, who is black, rejected a settlement offer from the Trump Organization last month to resolve the matter, sources told ABC News.

“Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law — rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in a statement Wednesday. “It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General’s Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place. We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims.”

During a deposition last month, Trump repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The lawsuit includes numerous instances in which Trump invoked the Fifth when asked to explain how the company calculated the value of certain properties. In a civil trial, jurors would be able to draw a negative inference about Trump declining to answer.

The attorney general’s investigation began in March 2019, after Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified before Congress that Trump’s annual financial statements inflated the values of Trump’s assets to obtain favorable terms for loans and insurance coverage, while also deflating the value of other assets to reduce real estate taxes.

Trump valued his Trump Tower apartment at $327 million, James said Wednesday. “No apartment in New York City has ever sold for that amount, she said, adding the inflated valuation was based on exaggerated square footage despite Trump knowing it wasn’t that big.

The suit also said a 2012 statement valued rent-stabilized apartments in the Trump Park Avenue property as if they could be rented at market value. As a result, units collectively worth $750,000 were valued at nearly $50 million, according to the lawsuit.

Trump Turnberry, a golf club in Scotland, was valued at nearly $127 million, but the suit said that since it opened in 2017 the golf course has operated at a loss each year.

“As a result, using values for the golf course ranging between $123 million and $126.8 million based on employing the Fixed Asset Scheme is materially false and misleading; the golf course should have been valued at a much lower figure,” the attorney general’s suit said.

“The examples I laid out barely scratch the surface,” James said Wednesday.

“The magnitude of financial benefit derived by Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization by means of these fraudulent and misleading submissions was considerable,” the suit said.

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(NEW YORK) — The wage gap that sees Black women earning less than white, non-Hispanic men can cost them as much as $2,000 per month, $23,000 per year and more than $900,000 over the course of a 40-year career, according to the National Women’s Law Center, a policy-focused organization that fights for gender justice.

Sept. 21 marks Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the date that Black women have to work to in 2022 to earn what their male, white, non-Hispanic counterparts earned in 2021.

Last year, the day fell on Aug. 3, meaning that Black women this year have had to work over six weeks longer into the year to try to make up for their lost wages.

In the United States, Black women are on average paid 58 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to Census Bureau data shared by the American Association of University Women, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women and girls.

Women of all races working full-time in the U.S. are paid 83 cents to every dollar earned by men, according to the AAUW. Equal Pay Day fell on March 15, the day that women have to work into 2022 to earn the same as their male counterparts did last year.

“Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay,” the National Committee on Pay Equity said in a statement on Equal Pay Day. “The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.”

According to National Women’s Law Center data, a Black woman who starts working at age 20 would have to work until she is almost 80 years old to earn what a white, non-Hispanic man is paid by age 60.

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day comes this year as Black women are still trying to recover from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, a time during which they lost jobs at a higher rate than other groups in the country.

Unemployment rates dropped or remained the same for almost every race or ethnicity except Black women, with an unemployment rate almost double that of white Americans, according to the National Women’s Law Center. In August, while many groups joined the labor force, 45,000 Black women left.

Black women also continue to be hit hardest by the student debt crisis in the U.S., with around 1 in 4 Black women holding student debt, according to data from the Census Bureau and the American Association of University Women.

Just over a decade after starting college, Black women, on average, owe 13% more than they borrowed, while white men, on average, have paid off 44% of their debt, according to The Education Trust.

One of the reasons Black women owe so much more in the years after graduating college is the gender pay gap, experts say.

Gloria Blackwell, CEO of the American Association of University Woman, said because Black women earn less, many are burdened by student debt for the larger part of their career. She described what Black women face in the workplace as the “perfect storm” of both a racial wealth gap and gender pay gap.

“When you are a Black woman and you have this burden of student loans, it impacts every aspect of your life,” Blackwell told ABC News last month. “It impacts whether you can pay for basic living expenses, whether you can afford transportation or even the rent in order to have a decent place to live, let alone save for a house or be able to start a family or take care of your family. It’s a burden on Black women on whether they can save for retirement or afford rent or be able to move to a better neighborhood.”

Black women enroll in college at higher rates than other groups. However, a 2020 report from the Lean In organization found that the gender pay gap is largest for Black women who have bachelor’s degrees.

“Black women are ambitious — they’re more likely than white men (35%) and white women (26%) to say they want to become top executives,” the report stated. “But even in the same job, Black women are paid less than white men.”

Experts including Blackwell and Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, say the solution for closing the gender pay gap for Black women needs to come from both the government and private sectors.

On the federal level, Mason said the passage of legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act can help promote pay equity and transparency, while enforcement of existing civil rights and equal employment laws can help lower workplace discrimination.

“Employers have a role to play in terms of making sure there is pay equity and making sure that women across the board earn what they’re worth and the skills and talents they bring to the table,” Mason previously told ABC News. “And as a culture and a society, we have a lot of work to do in terms of breaking gender stereotypes around women in the workplace, their value and how much women should be paid for their work.”

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(NEW YORK) — For Emily and Michael Brown, the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes hit close to home.

The Browns had been renting a two-bedroom apartment in Washington, D.C., when their now-6-month-old daughter was born. Eager to upgrade to a bigger space, the couple wanted to put their savings to use buying their first home.

But as they looked for a place to live this year — and watched mortgage rates, and their potential monthly payments, steadily climb — the couple lowered their budget from $500,000 to $400,000 and decided to put an offer on a home farther away from the city, with less space and fewer amenities.

“As the rates kept going up, we had to really bring down our budget and also be a little bit more realistic about what we were going to get for that budget,” Emily Brown, a high school math teacher, told ABC News.

Mortgage rates have more than doubled since January, lenders and real estate companies say, spurred by aggressive interest rate increases as the Fed attempts to curb high inflation. Many Americans searching for homes are lowering their budgets and making trade-offs — as they face higher monthly mortgage payments.

“Many homebuyers have dropped out of the housing market entirely because they can’t afford any home that fits their needs,” Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at real-estate brokerage company Redfin, told ABC News.

As the Fed keeps hiking interest rates to try to tame historic inflation, mortgage rates have spiked to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. And with the central bank expected to increase rates again on Wednesday — as inflation remains stubbornly high — some aspiring homeowners find themselves stuck on the sidelines altogether.

“The price of homes has jumped so much in the past year. Then you take into account the high interest rates, it’s really a tough position to be in as a first-time homebuyer,” Emily Brown said.

Mortgage rates hit 14-year high

For the first time since 2008, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is now above 6%, Freddie Mac said last week. The financial services company Bankrate estimates that a borrower taking out a $300,000 loan at that rate is paying about $500 more every month than they were before the Fed increases, which began in March.

“Since interest rates have risen, I’ve had to reduce the amount that I can afford each month, depending on my down payment and what a monthly mortgage would be,” Simone Jacobs, a therapist in Silver Spring, Maryland, told ABC News.

After renting for seven years, Jacobs had hoped to buy a property as a longer-term investment. But rising rates and still-high home prices have kept her out of the market.

“If nothing comes up or there’s nothing that sort of is affordable, then, you know, I will just wait,” she said.

‘It did kind of put us in a pickle’

Rapidly rising mortgage rates have also squeezed buyers building new homes.

Wesley and Kimberly Robinson, both elementary school teachers, started building a new home for themselves and their two daughters in Rogers, Arkansas, last year, when interest rates were close to 3%.

“With the low interest rates, we thought, Hey, if we’re going to ever upgrade, now’s the time,” Wesley Robinson told ABC News.

But as the COVID-19 pandemic stalled construction and the Fed continued to raise interest, their mortgage rate ended up to 5% when they finally locked it in this summer — adding about $300 to $400 to their monthly mortgage payment, according to Wesley Robinson.

“It did kind of put us in a pickle,” he said.

And now he fears higher mortgage rates might scare off buyers for their old home, which they have yet to sell.

“If now rates are like 6% or higher, do we need to like discount our home a little bit?” he asked. “We don’t want our home to sit there for weeks and weeks unsold. We kind of need the money.”

Fewer bidding wars as markets cool, particularly in the West

Real estate agents told ABC News that they are seeing homebuyers who had locked in low rates on their initial mortgages waiting to sell, amid the prospective of taking on costlier loans, which is keeping housing inventory low in much of the country.

“What we’re seeing now as a result of the rising interest rates is that you’re not getting as many offers as before,” said Jay Nix, a realtor in Washington, D.C., who worked with the Browns.

Less competition is leading to fewer bidding wars for those who are able to afford to buy, multiple real estate agents said.

“The good news is that you can get your offer accepted much more easily now because you’re not facing as much competition,” Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, said. “But the bad news is that the mortgage is going to be much more expensive.”

There are signs the housing market is beginning to cool in some parts of the country.

Redfin said Wednesday in a new report, provided first to ABC News, that Seattle’s housing market is slowing faster than any other in the United States, followed by Las Vegas and San Jose, California. The firm looked at changes from February to August, comparing metrics ranging from home prices and the number of pending sales to the total supply and the speed of sales.

The top 10 markets cooling the quickest were “almost all either West Coast markets that have long been expensive, or places that became significantly less affordable during the pandemic because they attracted scores of relocating homebuyers,” according to Redfin.

Rents on the rise

Hoping to buy someday, many prospective homebuyers remain stuck on the sidelines — grappling with high increases in rent.

Rent costs increased 6.7% in August from a year before, the biggest spike in nearly 40 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“If you wait a couple more years, your rent keeps going up,” said Redfin’s Fairweather. “And then you have to deal with the expense of higher prices and more competition in the housing market.”

For the Browns in Washington, that calculation convinced them to put in a winning bid on a home. They are set to close next month.

“We really just thought about if we continue to rent, you know, that money could go toward the mortgage,” said Emily Brown, whose husband is an Army veteran.

“It’s a big life decision,” she added. “So — you do the math.”

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(NEW YORK) — Wall Street will watch closely on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve is expected to escalate its fight against inflation with a dramatic interest rate hike.

The move would come a little more than a week after a higher-than-expected inflation report revealed that prices rose slightly in August, worsening the cost woes for U.S. households and sending the S&P 500 tumbling for its worst day of 2022.

The Fed has instituted a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the U.S. into an economic downturn and putting millions out of work.

Speaking at a conference held by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this month that the central bank must act “forthrightly, strongly” to dial back inflation.

The combination of those comments and the inflation data last week has led many economists to expect another 0.75% interest rate hike on Wednesday. Some economists have predicted that the Fed will raise rates by 1%, which it has not done in four decades.

At each of its last two meetings, the central bank has increased its benchmark interest rate by 0.75% — jumbo-sized hikes last matched in 1994.

The rate hikes have yielded mixed results, however. On an annual basis, consumer prices have moderated slightly but remain highly elevated.

The consumer price index rose 8.3% over the past year as of August, a slight slowdown from 8.5% in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some prices have already fallen significantly, though. Gas prices dropped 10.6% in August, the bureau said.

Meanwhile, rate increases appear to have slowed key sectors of the economy, sending mortgage rates higher and slowing the construction of new homes, for instance.

Still, other indicators suggest the U.S. economy continues to hum.

U.S. hiring fell from its breakneck pace but remained robust in August, with the economy adding 315,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rising to 3.7% as more people sought work, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in early September.

At closing Tuesday, each of the major stock indexes fell roughly 1% ahead of an anticipated rate hike. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled nearly 300 points.

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(WASHINGTON) — A hotter-than-expected inflation report last week dispelled hopes of relief for strained households and rekindled questions about U.S. policy for fighting sky-high prices.

The Federal Reserve has instituted a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the U.S. into an economic downturn and putting millions out of work.

Moreover, the rate hikes have failed to significantly reduce prices, prompting suggestions of policy alternatives that some economists told ABC News would better address the root causes of inflation, provide relief for struggling consumers and forgo the danger posed by a possible recession.

On the other hand, some economists told ABC News that the Fed’s rate hikes are the best tool for fighting inflation but the central bank hasn’t increased them far enough. For its part, the central bank is set to impose another major rate hike on Thursday.

Economists who support policy alternatives propose measures like price controls, a windfall profits tax on some corporations that charge high prices and a dramatic expansion of U.S. production to address supply shortages.

“The inflation over the last couple of years caught a lot of people off guard,” Lauren Melodia, the deputy director for fiscal and economic policies at the research group Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, told ABC News. “There’s a way in which society wants one solution for something.”

Here’s what you need to know about alternative policy solutions for fighting inflation:

Price controls

One of the most widely discussed and controversial solutions for inflation is price controls.

The thinking behind it is simple: When prices are pummeling consumers, the government imposes a measure that prohibits companies from selling particular goods above a certain price. Milk could face one price cap, for instance; soap could face another.

Isabella Weber, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a proponent of price controls, said the limits could be targeted toward specific items that have experienced particularly sharp price increases, especially essential goods like gas and food.

“Price controls help you avoid a price explosion,” Weber told ABC News.

There is a precedent for price controls in the U.S. To stem inflation brought about by supply shortages during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt empowered the newly created Office of Price Administration to cap prices on a slew of products. The move is widely credited with helping to limit inflation during the war, but it also gave rise to a black market for some items.

Decades later, in 1971, President Richard Nixon imposed price controls in an effort to slash inflation and ensure his re-election the following year. The controls remained in place until 1974 but were seen by many as ineffective at reining in price hikes.

The different outcomes in the 1940s and 1970s show that price controls help fight inflation but not in every case, Weber said, adding that price controls only limit inflation temporarily as other fixes address the causes behind the price pressures.

“It’s not that price controls always work or never work,” she said. “Price controls can work in certain contexts if tailored the right way.”

Some economists, however, reject the notion of targeted price controls.

“Every price is connected to every other price in the economy,” Catherine Pakaluk, a professor of economics at the Busch School of Business at Catholic University, told ABC News. “If you put certain products at bargain rates in relation to the rest of the economy, they get scooped up even faster and it generates supply shortages.”

For example, a price control on milk would prompt shoppers to load up on it and avoid comparatively high items that lack controls, such as meat, Pakaluk said.

The fear of empty shelves carries heightened concern because supply shortages remain a central cause of U.S. inflation and price controls could exacerbate that root problem even further, Pakaluk added.

“The economy is already suffering a really bad situation with shortages,” she said.

Windfall profits tax

Rather than limit prices, some solutions seek to rein in corporate profits.

A windfall profits tax rests on the premise that inflation has resulted in part from alleged price gouging committed by corporations that have reported record profits amid the inflation crisis, such as oil giants.

In theory, a tax on excessive profits should disincentivize profiteering and bring prices down.

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., backed a bill in May that would empower a federal agency and state attorneys general to enforce a ban on excessive price hikes.

On the whole, economists sharply disagree over the extent to which excessive profits have contributed to inflation. Similarly, economists who spoke to ABC News differed on whether a windfall profits tax would bring down prices.

Benjamin Powell, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, dismissed the solution, saying it poses the same risk as price controls: exacerbating supply shortages.

“It will just discourage some businesses from supplying goods that are already in short supply,” he said.

Melodia, of the Center for New York City Affairs, disagreed. Because businesses seek to optimize profit, the economy needs a safeguard to prevent them from doing so when prices are highly elevated, she said.

“There is so much evidence over the past couple years that corporations have had increased profits across the board – not just in the oil industry,” she said. “We don’t want companies jacking up prices because they can.”

Some economists, however, told ABC News that a windfall profits tax may push prices higher rather than bring them down.

Richard Wolff, an author and professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said the measure would need additional protections because otherwise it could drive companies to hike prices even more to overcome the losses imposed by the tax.

“What it becomes is an incentive to raise prices,” he said.

Ramp up production

Another policy for fighting inflation centers on an expansion of U.S. production in order to address a supply shortage.

At bottom, inflation owes to an imbalance between supply and demand. The surge in demand for goods and labor has far outpaced supply, as COVID-related bottlenecks have slowed delivery times and interrupted services while infection fears have kept workers on the sidelines.

One way to address that imbalance is to dramatically increase supply, thereby bringing it in balance with outsized demand.

Economists who spoke to ABC News largely agreed on the prudence of increased U.S. production but said it would not address immediate inflation, since the necessary output overhaul would take several years.

“It’s the most important thing we could be doing if we want sustained growth without price pressure,” J.W. Mason, a professor of economics at John Jay College, told ABC News. “We should be investing in capacity.”

The policy approach will likely take several years, he added.

“It’s not an immediate or short-term solution,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not going to limit price increases over the next months or year.”

Powell, of the Independent Institute, shared the support for increased U.S. production but opposed public investment. Instead, he said the U.S. should remove current policies that impede private sector growth.

He said he supports “lowering taxes and regulatory barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from bringing new investment.”

Regardless of where they stood on particular policies, several economists told ABC News that the U.S. needs a robust public dialogue about whether to pursue further rate hikes or explore alternatives.

“It’s a big fat mess,” said Wolff. “There should’ve been a debate before launching into interest rates. There should’ve been a discussion between political leaders and the public.”

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(NEW YORK) — “Guys, these are the most comfortable bras you will ever wear,” Kim Kardashian said while giving the world a glimpse of her shapewear brand’s latest launch.

The reality TV star and businesswoman announced that SKIMS will be releasing a collection of bras on Sept. 27.

Throughout the brand’s teaser video, a wide variety of models of different sizes and shapes are shown wearing the bras in several different neutral tones.

“Over the last three years, we’ve been developing an innovative system of bras using the best technology, designing options for every need,” SKIMS said in a statement.

The brand also shared that the new line of bras features comfortable, soft materials that provide optimal shape and support that feels seamless.

While SKIMS already offered bralettes, the introduction of the underwire bras comes with the goal of blending the comfort and ease of a bralette paired with the shape and support of an underwire bra.

While no other details about the new collection have been shared just yet, SKIMS fans still have the option to shop the brand’s most recently launched fleece loungewear collection released earlier this month. The line features a mashup of hoodies, joggers, shorts and more.

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(NEW YORK) — Fashion influencer Caitlin Covington has become a go-to for everyday outfit inspiration, with more than one million followers on Instagram.

Now, Covington has teamed up with apparel brand Liverpool Los Angeles to curate an exclusive collection for fall.

“I have been a huge fan of Liverpool jeans for many years now — the quality of their products is unmatched,” Covington said in an interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Items from the collection include staples like blazers, button down shirts, sweaters and denim.

“My number one goal is for women to feel confident when wearing these pieces,” Covington said.

The pieces are made to be versatile so they can be layered or worn on their own.

“You won’t know what looks good until you actually try adding on layers — don’t be afraid to get creative and use pieces that you already own in your closet, like a waist-accentuating belt or a warm scarf,” she added.

Prep your closet for fall by shopping the collection, which is available now at Nordstrom.

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(NEW YORK) — After two years, Kanye West is prematurely planning to cut ties between his Yeezy brand and Gap.

The Grammy-winning artists’ attorneys notified Gap Thursday that YEEZY LLC would be ending its partnership in a letter that accused the fashion retailer of not abiding by an initial agreement to release Yeezy apparel and open planned stores dedicated to the brand, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The letter also claimed that Gap was required to sell 40% of the YEEZY Gap line to brick-and-mortar stores throughout the second half of 2021. However, West’s attorney Nicholas Gravante Jr. is claiming the company has not opened one dedicated location to date.

“It was always a dream of mine to be at the Gap and to bring the best product possible,” Ye told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday. “Obviously there’s always struggles and back and forth when you’re trying to build something new and integrate teams.”

West also said he wasn’t given the opportunity to set prices or approve color selections on his products.

“It was very frustrating. It was very disheartening because I just put everything I had. I put all of my top relationships,” West told CNBC. “Our agenda, it wasn’t aligned.”

He later added, “Everyone knows that I’m the leader, I’m the king. … A king can’t live in someone else’s castle. A king has to make his own castle.”

West’s Yeezy partnership with Gap was announced in 2020 and launched the following year. The line included elevated-based basics for men, women and children.

“We are excited to welcome Kanye back to the Gap family as a creative visionary, building on the aesthetic and success of his Yeezy brand and together defining a next-level retail partnership,” Mark Breitbard, global head of Gap Brands, said in a statement at the time.

The partnership between both brands was slated to last for 10 years, with the option to renew after five years.

ABC News reached out to Gap and Yeezy for comment but has not received a response.

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(NEW YORK) — A hotter-than-expected inflation report this week pummeled the stock market and punctured hopes of relief for strained households.

New government data showed that prices rose slightly in August, worsening the cost woes for consumers as the Federal Reserve readies to decide on another interest rate hike next week.

While prices are rising in nearly every sector, some products have experienced more significant price spikes than others.

At the grocery store, for instance, price leaps vary considerably. The price of eggs is up nearly 40% from where it stood last August; while the price for margarine trails close behind, having jumped 38% over that time, according to the consumer price index released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The price of pork chops, however, rose little more than 5% since last August; and the price of tomatoes even inched downward over that period.

“We’re getting to a point where a lot of things are coming back into balance now,” Omar Sharif, founder and president of research firm Inflation Insights, told ABC News.

Still, many prices continue to climb sharply, since businesses face a host of heightened costs tied to supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and distribution costs, he said.

“We haven’t been in a situation in a long time where the entire cost structure of operating your business has gone up at the same time,” Sharif said. “Given the inflationary environment, it’s a lot easier to pass these costs along to your consumers.”

Here’s what you need to know about which prices are going up the most and why:

Airfare and travel-related expenses

Those who took a flight over the summer know that airfare prices have skyrocketed. Airline fares have jumped 33% since last August, which far outpaces the overall year-over-year inflation rate of 8.3%.

The steep increase in prices owes to the release of pent up demand from the pandemic, when people across the globe isolated in their homes and forwent travel. That leap in demand has collided with a shrunken supply, Sharif said, noting a pilot shortage this year that has reduced the flight capacity of airlines to roughly 80%.

“Post-omicron bookings this year have skyrocketed,” he said. “It’s one thing if you don’t have enough baggage handlers. It’s another if you don’t have enough pilots.”

Travelers have received some small relief, however. Between July and August, the pace of prices for airfare actually fell by about 4.5%.

Still, other prices in transportation and transportation-related goods have risen sharply over the past year. The cost of public transportation is up more than 20% since last August; and the price of tires over that time rose nearly 14%.

Gas and diesel fuel

Energy price hikes continue to dramatically outpace the overall inflation rate. The CPI’s energy index, a general measure of energy prices, rose almost 24% since last August.

Despite a sustained drop in gas prices over recent months, the cost of gas remains about 25% higher than it was a year ago.

The cost at the pump for diesel fuel has worsened even further over the last year. A category of prices called “other motor fuels” — which includes diesel and alternatives like ethanol — skyrocketed 53% since last August.

Diesel prices are especially important because they push prices upward in industries across the economy that rely on diesel trucks for the distribution of their products, said Sharif.

“It’s costly to move stuff across the country,” he said.

Gas prices have fallen in recent months amid a drop in demand from the summer peak and a decline in crude oil prices.

But the price of gas remains elevated due in part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted a widespread industry exit from Russia that has pushed millions of barrels of oil off the market.

Meanwhile, a longstanding oil supply shortage endures from a pandemic-induced production slowdown that hasn’t caught up with the bounce back in demand as people have returned to many of their pre-pandemic activities.

Eggs, flour and coffee

It doesn’t take a sleuth at the grocery store to find sky-high prices. But some sticker shocks delivers a stronger blow than others.

As mentioned, the prices of eggs and margarine have risen dramatically. The costs of other breakfast items have also spiked. The price of roasted coffee is up almost 19% over a year prior; while the price of milk has jumped 17% over that time.

The price of flour, meanwhile, has leapt a staggering 23% since last August, sending prices up for desserts and other baked goods.

The cost increases don’t stop at products meant to be consumed by human beings. The price of pet food has gone up 13% since a year ago.

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(LONDON) — The death of Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled for seven decades, has brought about a moment of transition for the British monarchy. And that also applies to the monarchy’s finances.

King Charles III, her son, ascended to the throne but likely will not be officially crowned for months. Currency in Britain and Commonwealth countries worldwide still features Elizabeth, and it remains unclear when Charles will appear on money.

For now, the royal family joins Britain in a national mourning period until Sept. 19, the day her funeral takes place.

Questions have already surfaced, however, about the inheritance of Elizabeth’s personal wealth, which totals in the hundreds of millions of dollars; as well as the fate of the British monarchy’s fortune, which stands in the tens of billions, according to Fortune.

The succession marks a transition period for the royal family’s assets, which include a vast set of valuable properties across Britain. Those assets yield annual profit to the British government and the royal family, but some Britons have questioned whether the financial arrangement ultimately benefits Britain, especially as it faces economic difficulty amid sky-high inflation.

Further interest focuses on the outlook for the powerful brand affiliated with the royal family, which draws tourists to Britain from around the world and appears on merchandise emblazoned with the royal coat of arms.

Here’s what you need to know about the British monarchy’s finances:

What was Elizabeth’s net worth and what happens to it now?

The net worth of Elizabeth — not including the wealth of the monarchy as a whole — stands in the hundreds of millions but the exact figure remains shrouded in mystery, since the House of Windsor does not release information on her total assets.

Fortune estimates Elizabeth’s net worth at $500 million. While expert David McClure, in his 2020 book The Queen’s True Worth, pegged her assets at $468 million.

Elizabeth derived her personal wealth from expensive goods like jewelry and art, as well as investment holdings and real estate. Her portfolio of privately held real estate included Balmoral Castle in Scotland and Sandringham House in England.

Charles is expected to inherit much of Queen Elizabeth’s personal wealth, though some of her fortune is tied up with monarchy holdings and could follow a more complicated path of inheritance.

How much wealth does the royal family have and where does it come from?

The wealth of the royal family, also known as “The Firm,” stands at an estimated $28 billion, according to Fortune.

The largest source of wealth for the royal family is the Crown Estate — a large portfolio of assets valued at $19.2 billion, according to a report from the Crown Estate. The Crown Estate includes more than 191,000 acres of rural land, including the famed Windsor Castle; as well as retail and leisure businesses and high-end London properties.

The royal family owns the Crown Estate in name only, however, since it falls under the control of the British government. The government, in turn, provides 25% of the profit the Crown Estate generates to the royal family from the national treasury in what’s called the “Sovereign Grant,” which essentially amounts to a subsidy from taxpayers. Last year, the grant totaled $99.4 million, a financial report from the Crown Estate showed.

Another major source of wealth for the royal family is The Duchy of Cornwall, a vast property valued at $1.2 billion. The estate, established in 1337 and made up of land across Britain, traditionally gets passed down to the heir to the throne upon succession, so it will transfer from Charles to his eldest son, William.

The Duchy of Lancaster, another centuries-old estate, is valued at $942.05 million. The profits from this estate go to the reigning monarch.

Additional wealth associated with the royal family centers on its brand, which generates $2.03 billion in economic activity for Britain each year by drawing global tourists, enhancing the value of merchandise emblazoned with a Royal Warrant or a Coat of Arms and adding to the appeal of television shows about the monarchy, according to a 2017 examination conducted by public relations research firm BrandFinance.

Does the British royal family pay taxes?

The British royal family pays some taxes but avoids others levied on wealthy families in Britain.

For instance, Charles will not pay inheritance taxes on the hundreds of millions in assets he will likely receive from Elizabeth. However, for others in Britain, any inheritance valued over $380,000 is slapped with a 40% tax.

Similarly, the royal family does not have a legal obligation to pay the country’s capital gains tax or income tax, according to a “Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation” published by the government in 2013.

Charles, however, has voluntarily paid a 45% income tax on money he has taken in from the Duchy of Cornwall.

Other taxes paid by the royal family include capital gains and income taxes incurred by Elizabeth and Charles from their personal wealth. For decades, the two most powerful figures in the royal family have also paid such taxes on income from royal assets when those were not used in an official capacity.

Some members of the British public question whether the royal family should be allowed to forgo some taxes. The frustration, they argue, is particularly pronounced at a time of economic difficulty for the United Kingdom, when inflation stands at an elevated rate of 9.9%.

“It’s hard to justify that, especially when so many people are struggling,” a resident of Britain told ABC News’ Good Morning America on Wednesday.

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