Inflation Soars With Stagflation At Doorstep

Confirming something that the majority of working class Americans already knew, courtesy of the Bush presidency, we are now on the doorstep of a much more serious economic downturn than economists had envisioned.

Today, the Labor Department reported that inflation at the wholesale level soared in January by one percent, the fastest pace in 16 years. This was more than double the 0.4 percent increase that economists had been expecting. This combination of rising inflation and weaker growth raises the threat of "stagflation," the economic plague that battered the country in the 1970s, when a series of oil price increases left Americans battered by stagnant growth and rising prices. This is when those least capable of withstanding an economic downturn really feel immense pain and suffering, often being forced to choose between paying for their medication, rent or utilities.

With the January jump; wholesale prices have risen over the past 12 months by 7.5 percent, the fastest increase since the fall of 1981, when the country was in a deep recession. This gain was led by a 1.5 percent spike in the cost of prescription and non-prescription drugs, which will hit the poor and elderly hardest of all.

If anything was ever deserving of political analysis and the assignation of blame this is it. The Bush administration's abominable economic policies have finally burst the dam. Their foundation of tax cuts for the wealthy, a soaring deficit, spending billions on an endless war, outsourcing of quality jobs and the enabling of corporate greed and malfeasance at the expense of the American public is beyond the pale.

One can expect nothing but more of the same from a McCain administration; maybe even worse as he will inevitably try to reduce the deficit on the backs of needed social programs. That's the GOP way, spend billions on war and tax breaks for the wealthy, then make the poor and middle class pay.