Food Inflation 'Far Greater' Than Government Admits
Wages aren't keeping up with food inflation, creating a problem for American families.
While consumer prices overall have risen 6.4 percent since 2011, chicken has jumped 18.4 percent, ground beef 16.8 percent and bacon 22.8 percent, CBS News reports.
"Food inflation is far greater than the government thinks it is," ConvergEx market strategist Nick Colas told CBS.
At the same time, median income has gained only 1 percent a year, CBS reports. That makes it difficult for parents to save for their children's college expenses. College tuition has increased 6 to 8 percent a year for the last five decades, according to CBS.
While some economists see the overall economy in fine shape, "middle-class families are quietly struggling," writes CBS correspondent Michelle Miller.
Colas is concerned. "The disconnect is severe, because it's the economists that make policy but it's the people who have to live with the outcome of that policy, and that disconnect is growing to the point where I think it has to break soon," he said.
Meanwhile, former White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers says that if we don't correct our gaping income inequality soon, the results won't be pretty.
"The share of income going to the top 1 percent of earners has increased sharply. A rising share of output is going to profits. Real wages are stagnant. Family incomes have not risen as fast as productivity," he writes in the
Financial Times.
"The U.S. may well be on the way to becoming a 'Downton Abbey' economy." Downton Abbey is a U.K. TV show which chronicles a wealthy British family and its servants in the early 20th century.
Source: CBS
Comment: WHEW! That's coming from a psychopath who is way up there in the responsibility stakes for creating the very same "gaping income inequality"...
Are we feeling the pinch yet?
Additional examples of soaring food prices around the world:
World food prices near crisis levels
India: Inflation dips but food prices soar
Rising food prices - not just your imagination
Higher energy, food prices are hurting most Americans
Rising food prices, climate change and global 'unrest'
World Food Crisis Looms as Prices Soar to Record High
Misery for UK households as food prices soar at twice the EU average
Rising Food Prices Continue to Climb, with Prices Up 10% in July Alone
Steak to become 'luxury item' as UK food prices predicted to soar in 2014
Indonesia's food prices hiked by a whopping 12.9%, inflation at 22-month high