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(NEW YORK) — Americans across the country are seeing higher prices at the mall, grocery store and gas pump, causing new pain for their pocketbooks right as the holiday shopping season is set to commence.

Inflation has risen at its highest rate in three decades, data released by the Labor Department earlier this week indicates, as consumer prices soared by 6.2% compared to the same period last year. This is the biggest one-year jump seen in the government’s consumer price index since 1990.

As inflation tightens its grip on the economy, the Federal Reserve has begun walking back previous assurances that it will be a temporary, post-pandemic blip. Economists at Goldman Sachs warned in a research note last week that inflation is “likely to get worse before it gets better,” and could persist well into next year.

Many Americans now are too young to remember the pain and uncertainty inflation wreaked on the country in the 1970s, a period economists dub as “The Great Inflation,” when wages and prices snowballed and the purchasing power of savings dwindled before a painful correction that led to a recession and double-digit unemployment rates in the early 1980s.

A generation later and under very different circumstances, prices are again surging at a rapid clip. While economists say policymakers now are much better-equipped to respond to inflation than the last time it struck the U.S., consumers are already feeling the pressure — particularly those with limited means to absorb higher prices for essentials.

Here is what Americans should know about inflation, why it is so high right now and when they can expect relief.

What is inflation?

“Basically, inflation measures the rate of increase in consumer prices,” Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told ABC News. “At the end of the day, it measures the extent to which the cost of living is higher.”

The Federal Reserve, America’s central banking system, defines inflation as the “increase in the prices of goods and services over time.”

“Inflation cannot be measured by an increase in the cost of one product or service, or even several products or services,” the Fed states. “Rather, inflation is a general increase in the overall price level of the goods and services in the economy.”

Policymakers evaluate changes in inflation by monitoring several different price indexes. One of the most commonly used barometers of inflation is the Consumer Price Index, which is released by the Labor Department each month and measures the average change over time in the prices paid by consumers for a market basket of goods and services.

The CPI has surged by 6.2% since last October, according to DOL data. The so-called “core index,” or measure for all items except the more volatile food and energy indices, rose 4.6% over the last 12 months, the DOL’s data indicates. This represents the largest one-year increase since August 1991.

“Inflation means that your dollar won’t stretch as far,” Laura Veldkamp, a professor of finance at Columbia Business School, told ABC News. She used Christmas presents as an example, saying that if you wanted to buy a sweater as a gift last year for $100, this year, that price might be closer to $105.

If the prices of some goods and services increases and the prices of others fall, but the overall prices that consumers pay for the bundle of goods and services does not increase, then this is not referred to as inflation.

What causes inflation, and why is it so high right now?

Inflation is determined by the interaction of total demand (aggregate demand) and total supply (aggregate supply) in the economy. If total spending in the economy exceeds the total amount that the economy can produce, then production cannot increase but instead prices will rise.

“When you have a higher demand, the price tends to go up. When you have lower supply, the price also tends to go up,” Goldstein told ABC News. “At the end of the day, the price is a combination of these forces.”

But monetary policies also affect inflation, he said. Keeping interest rates low and injecting a lot of money into financial markets — actions the Fed took to help buoy the economy during the health crisis — can also be linked to the high inflation we are now seeing, according to Goldstein.

Stimulus checks boosted total demand, and at the same time the ability to supply goods and services have been restricted by the pandemic. While the impact of stimulus money on inflation is now waning, many of the other factors that created these imbalances between supply and demand are persisting, Goldstein said.

“People feel that they have money to spend, they want to spend it on things that they haven’t done in the last year,” Goldstein said. “You basically have limits on supply at the same time that you have an increase in demand, and that certainly pushes prices up.”

Veldkamp also stressed the impact that the supply chain issues have on driving up prices. Using the Christmas sweaters metaphor again, Veldkamp added, “Let’s say those Christmas sweaters are stuck on a boat somewhere, then the few sweaters that are here, lots of people want them.”

“So, stores can charge more for them, because they’re scarce,” she explained.

Costs of doing business have also risen during the pandemic, Veldkamp noted, as companies had to spend more to make it safe to do business while COVID-19 spread.

“Lastly, workers are asking for higher wages,” Veldkamp said. “Which may be perfectly justified, but it does make the cost of doing business higher. Say if a restaurant waitstaff wants a 5%, 10% raise, those restaurants are going to have to pass some of that additional cost to their customers, otherwise they won’t turn a profit.”

The economic phenomenon known as the “wage-price spiral” can develop when prices increase and then workers ask for higher wages — which can then lead to further increases in the prices of goods and services, and these can lead to a further increase in wages and so on. In this manner, inflation can become a self-fulfilling prophesy of sorts. This ever-intensifying wage-price spiral characterized the U.S. economy in the ’70s, ultimately resulting in double-digit inflation.

How does the rise in inflation affect consumers?

If consumers’ wages increase with the rise in prices, they should be able to continue purchasing the same amounts of goods and services as usual. This will not be true for all consumers, however, meaning some may struggle to purchase what they used to.

“Your dollar doesn’t go as far, so it’s going to be a little bit harder to buy all the things on your list with the same amount of money,” Veldkamp said. “And that sounds pretty bad, but at the same time, wages are rising, and returns rise with inflation, too.”

Goldstein reiterated that the effect of inflation on consumers is that “when prices go up, people will have to pay more for whatever they want, and as a result, they can afford less.”

He also mentioned the wage-price spiral to show how inflation “might get out of control.”

“What could happen is everyone has to pay more, so they go back and start demanding increases in wages,” he said. “And if wages start to go up, then the whole process can get additional amplification and kind of like a snowball eventually gets very tough to control — and then it becomes very difficult to bring things back.”

How does inflation impact the stock market?

Stocks are a claim on the future earnings of firms, so in principle, firms should be able to raise their prices in line with inflation so their earnings should not decrease.

Historically, however, inflation has been linked to negative impacts in the stock market. One reason for this is that inflation restricts the ability of the Federal Reserve to take action. After stricter policies defeated the spiraling inflation in the U.S. in the early 1980s, the Fed has been able to ease monetary policy following stock market crashes and adverse events such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic. When inflation is increasing, however, then the Fed no longer has as much freedom to implement expansionary monetary policy, and when the Fed contracts its expansionary policies, this can decrease stock prices.

Inflation is also often accompanied by uncertainty, which can be bad for the stock market. Investors do not know how long it will last and do not know what to expect from monetary policy, meaning they might be less likely to invest in it.

In the near-term, investors will likely see higher returns on stocks in times of inflation, Veldkamp said, driven by prices increasing.

Goldstein warns, however, that, once inflation starts rising, the Fed will have “no choice but to increase rates abruptly.”

“And when this happens, this will tend to have a negative effect on the stock market,” he said.

What can the government do to reduce inflation?

The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates and ease the pandemic-era expansionary monetary policies that injected liquidity into financial markets, according to Goldstein, though he added that this is a “tough balance” as the economy still teeters toward a recovery.

“On the one hand, you want to provide stimulus to the economy and to markets to get over the crisis,” he said of the Fed. “But on the other hand, you don’t want to overdo it, so that things don’t overheat and cause inflation.”

Echoing Goldstein’s sentiments, Veldkamp told ABC News, “We’re probably going to see some interest rate rises.”

“So, if somebody hasn’t already refinanced their mortgage, now would be the time to do that,” she added. “We will probably see the Federal Reserve boost interest rates, because that’s their primary tool to constrain inflation, and what that does is it encourages people to save their money.”

But Goldstein warns that “the government cannot do a whole lot” when it comes to inflation.

Policies that have been tried in the past around the world, such as instituting price caps, can quickly backfire, Goldstein said, because they can bring about a whole new set of issues when the government intervenes like that in the economy.

In the short-term, anything the Biden administration — which operates independently of the Fed — can do to help ease the supply-chain bottlenecks will also help with keeping prices of goods down.

Veldkamp said that less government spending is the “traditional remedy to bring down inflation,” though adds that is not what we’re seeing happening at the moment with Biden’s proposed $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

This bill can help reduce inflationary pressures, however, “if that infrastructure helps to reduce the cost of doing business,” Veldkamp added.

“If fixing the potholes means that fewer delivery trucks are blowing out tires and things get to where they need to go on time — things run more smoothly,” she added. “If they can reduce the cost of doing business, they can bring down inflation.”

How can people protect themselves from the impacts of inflation?

“When you are dealing with inflation, you have to think about how you protect your investments,” Goldstein said. Just keeping money in your bank account could hurt, he said, “because you’re not getting compensated for the inflation.”

Some people choose to invest in the stock market, but as Goldstein mentioned, the stock market can be a bit of a mixed bag “because there could be overall macroeconomic implications that will push the stock market as a whole down.”

Veldkamp said her advice for Americans is: “Don’t leave your money in cash.”

“The value of cash is going to get eroded,” she said. “You want to look for, at the very least, a savings account that offers some interest. You might want to ask about money market mutual funds, those are financial products that are usually really safe, but give you a little bit more interest.”

“Things are getting more expensive, but if you protect the money that you have by putting it in interest-bearing accounts, you should do just fine, because your money will grow even faster than the price level is growing,” Veldkamp added.

“On the flip side, anybody who’s got a mortgage should be loving inflation,” Veldkamp said “If you owe somebody something, then inflation is eating away at the value of that debt, it should get easier and easier to pay back that loan.”

Will the inflation we’re seeing now be temporary?

In short, only time will tell.

In past months, policymakers including Fed Chair Jerome Powell have stressed that the inflationary pressures are expected to be “transitory” in the wake of the pandemic.

In a press conference earlier this month, however, Powell said that “supply constraints have been larger and longer lasting than anticipated.”

Powell said that “the drivers of higher inflation have been predominantly connected to the dislocations caused by the pandemic, specifically the effects on supply and demand from the shutdown, the uneven reopening and the ongoing effects of the virus itself” and stressed that the Fed’s tools “cannot ease supply constraints.”

Still, Powell said that he believes “our dynamic economy will adjust to the supply and demand imbalances, and that as it does, inflation will decline.”

“Of course, it is very difficult to predict the persistence of supply constraints or their effects on inflation,” Powell said. “Global supply chains are complex; they will return to normal function, but the timing of that is highly uncertain.”

Goldman Sachs economists, in their research note warning inflation will get worse before it gets better, said their core view remains that the underlying supply-demand imbalances will work themselves out as Powell has said.

“But it is now clear that this process will take longer than initially expected, and the inflation overshoot will likely get worse before it gets better,” the researchers warned.

The Goldman Sachs team said they expect the process of supply chain disruptions easing, inventories being rebuilt and the lingering impacts of pandemic-era fiscal boosts fading to “start by the second half of next year and to extend into 2023.”

Veldkamp told ABC News that she is only “modestly” concerned about inflation spiraling out of control like what was seen in the 70s.

“I do think it’s a possibility, I’m watching out for it,” she said. “At the same time, I think our central bankers know a lot more about how to contain inflation than they did in the 1970s. Economics has evolved a lot since then, and so I have confidence in the professionals running our monetary system, that they’re going to work hard to promote that.”

Goldstein echoed Veldkamp’s sentiments, saying that he doesn’t think the “nightmare scenario” of what happened in the ’70s is a likely outcome at this point.

“A lot has been learned from the past and how to deal with those situations,” he said. “And I think the Fed is ready to act, and if they see it is getting to that point, they can very quickly raise rates, and I think that will likely help.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The number of people who quit their jobs rose to a record high in September, the Department of Labor said Friday.

Some 4.4 million workers, or 3% of the total workforce, quit their jobs in September, the DOL said, marking the highest number since the government started tracking the data. Moreover, the number of job openings in September was 10.4 million — tying August for the second-highest figure ever recorded and down only slightly from the record 10.9 million job openings seen in July.

The layoffs and discharge rate, meanwhile, was unchanged at 0.9% in September.

The fresh data reflect an ongoing trend among U.S. workers who are reevaluating their work situation and life following the shock of the pandemic.

Job quitting increased in several industries in September, according to the data, with the largest increases seen in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector and in the state and local government education industry.

The record-high levels of people quitting their jobs, combined with soaring job openings, have left many major companies reeling to find staff. Workers now have an upper hand in the labor market that has been linked to a spate of strikes and new employee activism.

Thousands of workers at John Deere remain on strike and new unionization efforts have emerged at major companies including Amazon and Starbucks.

The crunch for workers as the economy reopens has also been linked to rising wages, especially in the service industry where wages were largely stagnant for years before the pandemic.

Preliminary data from the Labor Department indicates that the average hourly earnings of all employees in food and drinking establishments soared to a record high of $17.58 in September, a figure that has slowly climbed each month in 2021.

The overall unemployment rate still remains elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate last month was 4.6%, still above the 3.5% seen in February 2020 before the pandemic upended the labor market.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday that Innovative Solutions, Inc., is recalling approximately 97,887 pounds of raw ground chicken patty products, some of which was sold at Trader Joe’s locations.

The chicken patty products, which were produced on various dates from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of bone, according to the press release.

The products subject to recall include Chile Lime Chicken Burgers sold at Trader Joe’s, as well as Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders, which were sold at other grocery stores. Both were shipped nationwide.

The items have an establishment number of EST. P-8276.

There have been no confirmed reports of injury or illness, but the FSIS urges consumers to throw away or return the products.

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(NEW YORK) — Starbucks workers in upstate New York are seeking to form the coffee chain’s first union in the U.S., as the labor movement gains steam in the wake of COVID-19-related shocks to the economy.

The efforts to unionize at Starbucks come as unique conditions have given many employees an upper-hand in the labor market. Workers are quitting their jobs at some of the highest rates on record, according to Bureau of Labor statistics data, and job openings also have been hitting record highs in recent months. Meanwhile, an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs in the service industry has given employees new leverage as major companies struggle to find staff.

“We’ve been called essential workers, yet a lot of my co-workers are barely able to afford rent and putting groceries in the fridge in same week,” Casey Moore, 25, a Starbucks worker in the Buffalo area and member of the union organizing committee, told ABC News on Thursday. “I think the pandemic definitely highlighted the need for change, because it’s not sustainable.”

The unionization bid also comes after Starbucks reported earning record fourth-quarter consolidated net revenues of $8.1 billion. Shares of Starbucks, which closed at $111.44 on Thursday, are up more than 19% over the last year and have nearly doubled over the last five years.

Ballots for a union election were mailed out to Starbucks employees at three locations in the Buffalo area on Wednesday evening despite a last-minute effort on behalf of Starbucks to delay sending out the ballots as the company sought to included all Buffalo-area stores in the vote.

Kayla Blado, the press secretary for the National Labor Relations Board, confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that the union election ballots had been mailed out on Wednesday at 5 p.m. local time after the board did not respond to the Starbucks’ motion for a stay of election by that time. The ballots are going to be impounded, Blado said, meaning they won’t be counted until the board decides whether or not they’re going to review Starbucks’ request.

If the board denies the request for a review, the ballots will be counted Dec. 9, according to Blado. If the board grants the request, then a new date will be chosen to count the ballots.

“I love my job and I love what I do, and that just made it even more incredibly frustrating to see their response,” Moore told ABC News of Starbucks’ apparent reaction to the unionization bid. “One of the reasons I first started working at Starbucks was because of the progressive values that they profess to have as a company, and it’s honestly been shocking living through the this whole thing.”

The workers are seeking to be represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

The Starbucks Workers United group confirmed on Twitter Wednesday evening that ballots are in the mail and heading to Starbucks partners voting to organize the first unionized stores out of the over 8,000 corporate locations in the U.S.

“Despite Starbucks’ repeated attempt to stop partners from voting, the NLRB has once again upheld our legal right to vote to join a union here in Buffalo,” the Starbucks Workers United said in a statement. “Starbucks’ PR teams say they want partners to vote, yet they continue to use every delay tactic in the book to try and stop an actual vote.”

“Hopefully, the whole country can look at what partners are doing in Buffalo against the odds and realize how outdated our labor laws are when companies are allowed to interfere in the process so dramatically,” the statement added. “When partners filed for a union, we should have been allowed to vote. A company as large as Starbucks shouldn’t be able to use its wealth to intimidate us.”

Moore said working along the service industry’s front lines during the pandemic has been incredibly stressful, and just today a customer she served via the drive-thru openly told her that he’d tested positive for COVID-19.

Union membership has dwindled in recent decades, falling to 10.8% in 2020 among salaried and wage-earning workers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1983, the first year the BLS collected this data, that figure was 20.1%.

Despite the slumping figures, approval for labor unions in the U.S. is at its highest levels since 1965, according to Gallup data. Some 68% of Americans approve of labor unions in 2021, the highest recorded by Gallup since a 71% mark in 1965.

Many labor economists have attributed this gap between support for unions and union membership rates to increased employer resistance to unionization and outdated labor laws that make it difficult to form unions. Advocates are seeking to reform this through proposed legislation known as the PRO Act, which seeks to expand workplace protections for union-seeking employees.

Moore told ABC News that she joined the union organizing committee a few months after she began working at Starbucks this past summer.

“I always had positive thoughts about unions — my dad is in a teacher’s union and stuff — so I knew that they were good things, but at first I was like, ‘I don’t know — I’ve never heard of unions in the service industry,'” Moore said.

She said she was inspired to get involved, however, after “meeting with people from Workers United and, like, hearing my co-workers talk about why they wanted to form a union, which is really like to have a seat at the table and to actually have a say in our workplaces.”

“I’ve learned so much about labor law, but I never anticipated just … the sheer craziness of like this whole process,” Moore added.

Starbucks’ leaders have said that unionizing would change employees’ direct relationship with the company, and they want to preserve that relationship.

“We have also asked the National Labor Relations Board to allow all partners in Buffalo stores to vote, instead of just three stores,” Rossann Williams, executive vice president of Starbucks North America, said in a letter to employees last month that was shared with ABC News. “As you know, Starbucks stores in a city or market are deeply interconnected — partners like to routinely work shifts in other stores, we transfer and promote partners between stores, we share inventory across the market, we operate under the same policies, and we share the same set of leaders.”

“We believe rather than restricting the vote to three stores, all Buffalo store partners should vote because every partner’s voice matters, especially in an important decision that may affect them all,” Williams added. She said they are hosting meetings with employees in Buffalo so they can “know the facts and have a space to hear from us directly so they can make their own informed decision.”

“I want to be clear that our actions in Buffalo are not about whether we are pro-union or anti-union,” Williams added. “It’s quite simply that we are pro-Starbucks partners. As you know, our heritage and culture are built on the belief that by working directly together as partners, we can build a different kind of company.”

In the same letter, Williams also made clear that “we are asking partners to vote ‘no’ to a union — not because we’re opposed to unions but because we believe we will best enhance our partnership and advance the operational changes together in a direct relationship.”

In late October, as unionization efforts were in full swing, Starbucks announced it was raising employees’ wages and making other changes to improve working conditions. By summer 2022, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings statement, all hourly employees will make an average of $17, ranging from $15 to $23 across the U.S.

Moore said there is “no doubt” in her mind that Starbucks’ instituting a new seniority pay system this was in response to their efforts.

“They had 15 years to implement that policy, and they just did that before, like, I think it was a week before we, the first three stores, started voting,” she said. “So, it’s things like that, where you can see what power we have standing together with just the threat of unionizing.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday that Innovative Solutions, Inc., is recalling approximately 97,887 pounds of raw ground chicken patty products sold at Trader Joe’s locations.

The chicken patty products, which were produced on various dates from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of bone, according to the press release.

The products subject to recall include Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Chicken Burgers and Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders, which were shipped nationwide.

There have been no confirmed reports of injury or illness, but the FSIS urges consumers to throw away or return the products.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — With supply chain issues hitting the fresh food industry, due to delays and struggles to get products from farms to store shelves, certain Thanksgiving staples like cranberries will have a steeper cost and potentially less stock.

Ocean Spray president and CEO Tom Hayes joined Good Morning America on Thursday to address the upcoming run on Thanksgiving items and how his company’s signature fruit has had to stay afloat amid supply chain woes.

“Ocean Spray has had supply chain challenges, the whole industry has. We will continue to do our best to keep supplies going and supplies on shelves, but we’ve had to be resilient this year,” Hayes said. “We’re owned by 700 family farms and they continue to do everything they have for 90 years to keep the supply flowing, but it has been a challenge. Whether it’s steel cans and making supply chain adjustments, we have had to do it, and this year has been difficult of course.”

When it comes to price forecasting, Hayes explained that his company “unfortunately” has to pass on the rising production costs to consumers.

“That’s just a reality. We have a lot of costs going up — all ingredients, transportation. It is something that is continuing to affect us as a company and we do have to pass those on,” he said. “Remember, they’re family farms, so we have to make sure they have a livelihood too and we’re balancing that. We haven’t taken pricing in 10 years at Ocean Spray. We’re doing our best to keep costs down, but we have taken pricing and are looking forward to still having a great season.”

By the end of October, there were already some shortages on other crucial Thanksgiving items.

Turkeys were 60% out of stock, which was a little more than half of stock compared to the same time last year. Yams and sweet potatoes were 25% out of stock, while stock on refrigerated pies were down 5% and cranberries were 20% out of stock.

If consumers shop early, those products should be available, but — with price increases at the highest in 30 years — they will cost more.

To save some money on the total bill, experts recommend shopping now for non-perishable items and considering a potluck style Thanksgiving to spread the cost around.

“This is our super bowl at Ocean Spray,” Hayes said. “We are working day in and day out, all night in a lot of cases, to deliver products to the market.”

“My advice is to be absolutely flexible. Whether it’s jellied, whole or fresh cranberries,” he added. “Plan early and make sure you get to the grocery store. It will be a happy Thanksgiving, but you have to demonstrate more flexibility than you have in the past.”

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(BALTIMORE) — President Joe Biden visited Baltimore on Wednesday to tout his infrastructure bill and highlight his administration’s work to ease port delays as the country approaches the holiday season with rising inflation and delivery slowdowns on the horizon.

Biden’s visit came five days after Congress passed his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that, among myriad investments in the nations’ physical infrastructure, will provide $17 billion to revitalize coastal, inland and land ports, as well as strengthen them against the effects of climate change.

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced short- and long-term steps to strengthen U.S. ports as part of an effort to tackle supply chain issues, including using money from the infrastructure bill, which the president plans to sign into law on Monday during a bipartisan White House ceremony.

“I’m not waiting to sign a bill to start improving the flow of goods from shifts to shelves,” Biden said during remarks at the Baltimore port. “Yesterday, I announced the port — a port plan of action. It lays out concrete steps for my administration to take over the next three months to invest in our ports and to relieve bottlenecks.”

As the U.S. continues to slowly emerge from the pandemic, Biden has been grappling with a crisis up and down the supply chain defined by worker shortages and delivery delays.

At the same time, the prices Americans are paying for everyday goods are soaring as the country approaches the holiday season — a potential political liability for the president. In Baltimore, he acknowledged the economic hardship people are facing.

“COVID-19 has stretched global supply chains like never before, and suddenly when you go to order a pair of sneakers or a bicycle or Christmas presents for the family, you’re met with higher prices and long delays — or they said they just don’t have any at all,” Biden said.

Demand for many goods has shot up just as global supply chains reel from disruptions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is a recipe for delays and for higher prices, and people are feeling — they’re feeling it,” Biden said.

Biden will continue to hit the road to tout his infrastructure bill — and pitch his larger “Build Back Better” social bill he is trying to push through Congress — in the weeks ahead, according to the White House.

On Wednesday, he drew a clear line between the infrastructure bill and the real impact he said American families should see.

“This bipartisan infrastructure bill is a major step forward,” he said. “It represents the biggest investment in ports in American history. And for American families, it means products moving faster and less expensively, from factory floor through the supply chain to your home.

“The bottom line is this,” he continued. “With the bill we passed last week, and the steps we’re taking to reduce bottlenecks at home and abroad, we’re set to make significant progress.”

On Tuesday, the president spoke with the CEOs of four major retailers and shipping companies, Walmart, UPS, FedEx and Target. He said that the executives “assured me that the shelves will be stocked in stores this holiday.”

Even though the president does not plan to sign the infrastructure bill until next week — he has said he wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together to the White House for a ceremony marking the bipartisan bill’s passage — a senior administration official said Tuesday that work was already underway to get port-related programs started.

“Outdated infrastructure has a real cost for families, as we all know, for our economy and for competitiveness,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “We’re seeing that right now, even as we move record goods through our ports, with supply chain bottlenecks forming that lead to higher prices and lower deliveries for American families.”

To provide immediate relief, the administration will now allow port authorities to redirect project cost savings toward immediate projects to address supply chain challenges, senior administration officials said Tuesday. One official said doing so was a way to “creatively” redirect grant money.

For example, the officials told reporters, the nation’s third-busiest port, in Savannah, Georgia, came under budget on a previous grant and could now use the leftover dollars to build a pop-up yard to store shipping containers; port authorities believe the site could be operational in 30 to 45 days, the officials said.

“It’s a great way to add capacity and efficiency at the port,” an official said. “We expect that that kind of flexibility will help other projects as well.”

The administration also plans to launch a $240 million grant program within the next 45 days to invest in port infrastructure — using money from the infrastructure bill.

Within the next two months, it will identify projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction work at coastal ports, inland waterways and other facilities, officials said.

In the next three months, they said, the administration will begin competition for the first round of port infrastructure grants funded by the infrastructure bill. The federal government will also identify ports of entry at the nation’s southern and northern borders that need modernization and expansion.

In Baltimore, Biden explained how his administration was helping fund the expansion of a 126-year-old tunnel near the port to accommodate trains carrying containers stacked on top of each other.

A senior administration official emphasized that the port was a public-private partnership and noted the port was making major investments in adding container cranes and a second deep, 50-foot berth.

“It’s an example of the kind of investments that are needed from both the private and public sector side,” the official told reporters Tuesday. “It’s also an illustration that the co-funding in the bipartisan infrastructure plan incentivizes the private sector to make these kinds of long-term investments as well.”

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(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices continued to climb at an alarmingly rapid pace last month, according to data from the Labor Department on Wednesday, as inflation woes have cast a shadow over the post-pandemic economic recovery.

The Consumer Price Index, often used as an inflation barometer as it measures the prices consumers pay for everyday goods and services, jumped by a higher-than-expected 0.9% last month. It surged 6.2% since last October, the largest 12-month increase since November 1990, the government said.

The so-called “core index,” or measure for all items except the more volatile food and energy indices, rose 4.6% over the last 12 months. This represents the largest one-year increase since August 1991, the Labor Department said. In October alone, the core index climbed 0.6% after a 0.2% increase in September.

The energy index climbed by some 4.8% last month alone and the gasoline index gained 6.1%. This marks the fifth consecutive monthly increase in gasoline prices.

Increases in consumer prices were seen broadly across many of the indices, the DOL said, with sharp spikes in prices for energy, shelter, food, used cars and trucks. New vehicles were among the largest contributors to the overall price hikes.

The indices for airline fares and alcoholic beverages saw a decline last month, the DOL said.

The price increases have been linked to rebounding consumer demand for goods and services as the pandemic wanes, economists have said. Meanwhile, lingering supply chain issues and an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs have exacerbated the mounting inflation fears among policymakers.

While some had hopes the inflation data seen in recent months reflected a temporary blip, the fresh data released Wednesday likely fuels further concerns about inflation’s grip on the economy going forward. Many are now looking at how the Federal Reserve will respond to the latest indicators as it plans to start rolling back on pandemic measures meant to buoy the economy during the health crisis.

President Joe Biden reacted to the new economic data in a statement Wednesday morning, saying that addressing inflation was a “top priority” for his administration and touting his Build Back Better plan as a way to ameliorate the economic pain it causes.

“Inflation hurts Americans pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” the president said, noting the largest share of the increase in prices in the report is due to rising energy costs. The president said he has directed his National Economic Council “to pursue means to try to further reduce these costs, and have asked the Federal Trade Commission to strike back at any market manipulation or price gouging in this sector.”

“Other price increases reflect the ongoing struggle to restore smooth operations in the economy in the restart: I am travelling to Baltimore today to highlight how my Infrastructure Bill will bring down these costs, reduce these bottlenecks, and make goods more available and less costly,” Biden added. “And I want to reemphasize my commitment to the independence of the federal reserve to monitor inflation, and take steps necessary to combat it.”

Biden said that more than a dozen Nobel Prize-winning economists “have said that my plan will ‘ease inflationary pressures,” adding that it does this “without raising taxes on those making less than $400,000 or adding to the federal debt, by requiring the wealthiest and big corporations to start to pay their fair share in taxes.”

“We are making progress on our recovery. Jobs are up, wages are up, home values are up, personal debt is down, and unemployment is down,” the president said. “We have more work to do, but there is no question that the economy continues to recover and is in much better shape today than it was a year ago.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden plans to visit Baltimore on Wednesday to tout his infrastructure bill and highlight his administration’s work to ease port delays as the United States approaches the holiday season with rising inflation and delivery slowdowns on the horizon.

Biden’s visit comes five days after Congress passed his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that, among myriad investments in the nations’ physical infrastructure, will provide $17 billion to revitalize coastal, inland and land ports, as well as strengthen them against the effects of climate change.

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced short- and long-term steps to strengthen U.S. ports as part of an effort to tackle supply chain issues, including using money from the infrastructure bill.

As the U.S. continues to slowly emerge from the pandemic, Biden has been grappling with a crisis up and down the supply chain defined by worker shortages and bottlenecks.

On Tuesday, the president spoke with the CEOs of four major retailers and shipping companies — Walmart, UPS, FedEx and Target — “to discuss steps that the administration and private sector can take to further strengthen our supply chains and build on steps we’ve already taken to speed up deliveries and lower prices,” a White House official said.

Even though the president does not plan to sign the infrastructure bill until next week — he has said he wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together to the White House for a ceremony marking the bipartisan bill’s passage — a senior administration official said Tuesday that work was already underway to get port-related programs started.

White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment Tuesday about why Biden chose Baltimore in particular — and not a larger port like Los Angeles or Long Beach in California — but indicated that Biden would have more to say Wednesday.

“Outdated infrastructure has a real cost for families, as we all know, for our economy and for competitiveness,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re seeing that right now, even as we move record goods through our ports, with supply chain bottlenecks forming that lead to higher prices and lower deliveries for American families.”

To provide immediate relief. the administration will now allow port authorities to redirect project cost savings toward immediate projects to address supply chain challenges, senior administration officials said Tuesday. One official said doing so was a way to “creatively” redirect grant money.

For example, the officials told reporters, the nation’s third-busiest port, in Savannah, Georgia, came under budget on a previous grant and could now use the leftover dollars to build a pop-up yard to store shipping containers; port authorities believe the site could be operational in 30 to 45 days, the officials said.

“It’s a great way to add capacity and efficiency at the port,” an official said. “We expect that that kind of flexibility will help other projects as well.”

The administration also plans to launch a $240 million grant program within the next 45 days to invest in port infrastructure — using money from the infrastructure bill.

Within the next two months, it will identify projects with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for construction work at coastal ports, inland waterways and other facilities, officials said.

In the next three months, they said, the administration will begin competition for the first round of port infrastructure grants funded by the infrastructure bill. The federal government will also identify ports of entry at the nation’s southern and northern borders that need modernization and expansion.

While the White House wouldn’t say why Biden had chosen to visit the port of Baltimore, an administration official emphasized that the port was a public-private partnership and noted the port was making major investments in adding container cranes and a second deep, 50-foot berth.

The official also highlighted how the administration is helping fund the expansion of a 126 year-old tunnel near the port to accommodate trains carrying containers stacked on top of each other.

“It’s an example of the kind of investments that are needed from both the private and public sector side,” the official said. “It’s also an illustration that the co-funding in the bipartisan infrastructure plan incentivizes the private sector to make these kinds of long-term investments as well.”

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(NEW YORK) — Tongass National Forest stretches across nearly 17 million acres of land in southeast Alaska and is home to a lush vibrant ecosystem. It is now also at the center of a bitter battle between those trying to save the old growth forests and those who say access more of it is critical for the local economy.

Tongass covers more than 80% of southeast Alaska and, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is responsible for sequestering nearly 8% of all U.S. carbon emissions.

Global leaders have pledged for decades to end deforestation by 2030, but some Alaskan corporations are asking for the opposite and want more access to the forest to support the local economy.

“Where’s your Amazon boxes going to come from? American consumers still want this stuff. We’re producing it here. It’s a good job for us people, good jobs for Alaskans,” said Eric Nichols, the owner of Alcan Alaska Timber Corporation.

Southeast Alaska relies heavily on tourism, and took a major economic blow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nichols, who said he’s had to downsize his company by half because of logging restrictions, said the timber industry is a way to bring consistent jobs back to the area.

“How do you raise a family on $15 an hour for a five-month job?” said Nichols. “How do I do that? I can’t do that. My kids can’t do that.”

Wanda Culp, a Tlingit native, is also worried about the future of this land and her family, but said that the natural forest is critical to their lifestyle. Her tribe has deep ties to the land.

“We depend on this wilderness as Indigenous people,” said Culp.

She noted that her people have used the forest as a natural resource for generations, but that the commercial “clearcutting” method of deforestation is disrespectful and unsustainable.

“We don’t just cut it down and let it land; we create a spot for it to land so it doesn’t split. So it’s worthwhile. That isn’t what happens with clear cuts. It’s total disrespect,” said Culp, who flew to Washington, D.C., in 2019 to protest large-scale deforestation in southeast Alaska.

In the late 1900s, the timber industry and forest clearcutting was prominent in southeast Alaska with nearly a million acres of the Tongass forest chopped down.

Bryce Dahlstrom of Viking Lumber supports clearcutting trees and likened it to any type of farming done across the country.

“It’s a crop that grows back,” said Dahlstrom. “If you don’t want a farmer to cut his corn down, don’t eat corn.”

In January 2001, just days before leaving office, President Bill Clinton enacted the Roadless Rule, which aims to preserve roadless areas by preventing road construction, as well as timber harvesting, on more than 9 million acres in the Tongass National Forest.

Since then, presidential administrations have gone back and forth on whether to keep or dismiss the rule, citing a variety of political reasons. For now, the rule remains in place.

Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said between wood and minerals, there is untapped natural wealth in Alaska inhibited by the restriction.

“We’re the largest state in the country by far. This forest is larger than most states. There’s incredible opportunity to provide lumber and lumber products for the United States and possibly other parts of the world. This is an opportunity for us to do it here again and provide jobs, revenue and wealth,” said Dunleavy.

Many scientists say the health of the planet cannot be sacrificed for economic growth anymore, especially in places like Tongass, which are “carbon sinks” that help combat rising carbon emissions.

In 2020, 111 scientists from across the country wrote a letter to Biden asking him to permanently install protections in Tongass and create a strategic carbon reserve system.

Despite the restrictions from the Roadless Rule, Tongass is the last national forest that allows large-scale clearcut logging of ancient old-growth trees. Some argue it’s not an issue because trees can be replanted.

“[Trees] are a renewable resource. We cut trees down because there’s a demand for that product,” said Nichols.

But conservationist Meredith Trainor disagrees. She said the older the trees, the more effective they are at removing carbon dioxide and that an entire forest cannot be replaced so easily.

“There is no one tree scenario where we’re going to solve climate change, right? This is about managing a whole forest or a certain way,” said Trainor. “It’s the whole system that works together to sequester carbon and old growth is much more effective at doing that than young growth.”

The timber industry in southeast Alaska is only allowed to work in 2% of Tongass. Loggers like Nichols argue that’s not enough.

He wants to expand access even further, potentially giving loggers access to an additional half a million acres.

“I want enough to have an industry. We need about 5, maybe 6%, to continue to have a continuous industry up here,” said Nichols.

Scientists argue that the whole Alaskan ecosystem is connected. They believe that expanding the logging industry may have a negative effect on the region’s other largest employment sector: commercial fishing.

In Sitka, Alaska, an island town of about 8,000, they rely heavily on salmon fisheries. Fisherman Marsh Skeele said that the expansion of logging puts fishermen’s livelihoods at risk.

“[Logging] damages streams and lakes — freshwater ecosystems that salmon rely on, that fishermen rely on, that this community relies on,” said Skeele. “They’re kind of ignoring all the jobs that are tied to what exists already.”

Dunleavy said that it’s imperative to look at Alaska for all its potential and that doesn’t necessarily mean change is bad for the future of the state.

“There’s this narrative that’s trying to be pushed that if you touch Alaska, you will damage it permanently and ruin it. That’s not the case. It’s not the case at all,” said Dunleavy.

While some believe expanding access to Tongass National Forest could help more people than it could harm, a tug-of-war continues in southeast Alaska between the environment and the economy.

As for Culp, she said that the climate crisis is an issue that cannot be ignored any longer.

“We are in a serious, serious climate crisis. Why can’t we start repairing our habitat?” said Culp. “Why can’t we protect what we have? I want my great-granddaughter to be able to walk this land and breathe this fresh air, touch these trees, know who they are. It’s not much to ask.”

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