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America Lost (PBS, 2019)
Americans Worked More, But Earned Less, as August’s Inflation Reduced Real Earnings
Adjusted for inflation, Americans earned less in August – even though they worked more hours – the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Wednesday.
Due to a seasonally-adjusted 0.6% jump in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) compared to July, real average weekly earnings decreased 0.1% over the month, despite a 0.3% increase in the average number of hours worked.
August’s 0.2% improvement in average weekly earnings from July fell short of the month’s 0.6% increase in prices, resulting in the dip in real average weekly earnings.
For production and nonsupervisory employees, the loss in real wages was even more severe. Here, real average weekly earnings decreased 0.3% over the month, as a 0.3% increase in the average workweek failed to offset a 0.6% drop in real average hourly earnings.
In August, a seasonally-adjusted 10.6% increase in the cost of gasoline was the largest contributor to the 0.6% spike in the price index for all-items, accounting for over half of the rise from July. A 0.3% rise in the cost of shelter – the 40th straight monthly increase - also contributed to the increase in prices.
The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.
61% Are Now Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck; Personal Savings Rate Falls
As of July, Americans are saving less – and more than half are living paycheck-to-paycheck – new reports reveal.
“61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck — inflation is still squeezing budgets,” CNBC reported on Thursday, citing a new Lending Club study on July 2023 consumer trends.
Also on Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its “Personal Income and Outlays” report for July, revealing that Americans’ average personal savings rate fell from 4.3% in June to 3.5% in July.
July’s 3.5% savings rate is a mere quarter of its 13.4% level when former Pres. Donald Trump left office and more than twice the 7.2% savings rate recorded during Trump’s first full month in the White House.
Adjusted for inflation, “real” disposable personal income (DPI) for July - personal income less personal current taxes – fell, compared to the previous month, the BEA reports:
- Total personal income increased $45.0 billion, at a 0.2% monthly rate, in July.
- Disposable personal income was virtually unchanged from June.
- “Real” disposable personal income decreased 0.2% for the month.
- “Real” personal consumption expenditures increased 0.6% in July, reflecting increases of 0.9% in spending on goods and 0.4% in spending on services.
- The Personal Consumption Price Index increased 0.2%, compared to the previous month.
The business and economic reporting of CNSNews is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.
J.D. Vance: Biden’s Green Agenda to Decimate Steelworkers in the Heartland
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is warning President Joe Biden’s latest Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules will cripple the nation’s steel industry, particularly in Ohio and Indiana, as similar measures did in the European Union last year amid an energy crisis.
Vance sent a letter to Biden on Thursday regarding the administration’s sweeping EPA rules on United States power plants. The letter was first reviewed by Breitbart News.
According to Vance, Biden’s EPA is unable to cite a single domestic power plant that is able to meet the green energy standards set out by rules, suggesting the agency “has failed to consider fully the impact of the standards to industrial consumers of fossil-fuel generated electricity.”
Most notably, Vance writes that the rules would devastate the U.S. steel industry:
The impact of the rule would be especially hard on a backbone of the nation’s industrial base: the steel industry. The country’s top two steel producing states of Ohio and Indiana are especially reliant on fossil fuels for electric power generation—80 percent in Ohio and 91 percent in Indiana. When the new standards drive up energy costs and undermine the electric grid, steelmakers in the Heartland and throughout the country will suffer. The steel industry has already warned that the “increased costs, along with potential base load generation and grid reliability issues from the premature closure of fossil fuel-fired power plants, will have a dramatic impact on the viability of steel plants in the Unites States.” [Emphasis added]
Vance points to what has occurred with the European Union’s (E.U.) steel industry due to the continent’s energy crisis.
“My concerns are hardly speculative. Last year’s energy crisis in the European Union devastated the region’s steelmakers,” Vance writes. “Rising energy costs, including for electricity, made steel production unprofitable. Several European steel mills were fully or partially idled.”
The nation’s steel industry, particularly in Ohio and Indiana, is under pressure and faces crippling setbacks. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty)
Industry experts warned last year the energy crisis, where E.U. leaders demanded rationing among Europeans, may spur a “permanent deindustrialization.” Specifically, hundreds of steelworkers in Wales and England were laid off as a result
“This administration may tout its public subsidies for electric vehicles and investments in infrastructure, but those near-term demand shocks cannot resolve the long-term strain of climate alarmism and unworkable environmental regulations,” Vance writes. “I urge to withdraw the proposed rule.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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