America
Bidenomics Wallops
Consumers Stealth price hikes
drain family budgets. “Working 40 hours a week ain’t enough!”
A BY DAVID A. PATTEN
monmouth university poll recently reported the stunning news that half of all Amer- icans are now struggling to remain fi nancially stable.
Sky-high prices are draining the budgets of families.
Retirees are counting pennies, and some are forced to move in with their children. Consumers everywhere are looking for relief. As a working mom named Shay recently declared in a
video that went viral on social media: “Whoever needs to fi x it, please fi x it because it’s to the point now where working 40 hours a week ain’t enough.” But experts warn the odds of prices falling amid the worst
infl ationary hangover since Jimmy Carter’s presidency look slim. Historians note it took President
Ronald Reagan a full year to wrestle infl ation back under control after taking offi ce in 1981. As Kansas GOP Sen. Roger Mar-
PRESIDENT TRUMP
INFLATION 2017–2021.
5.6%
shall recently told Newsmax TV: “You’re not going to see infl ation slow down until the federal government stops spending so much money.” Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Federal
Reserve Bank, recently remarked: “Firms are telling us that price sensitivity is very much higher now.” With growing consumer resistance to price hikes, small
18 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2024
wonder retailers are fi nding increasingly subtle ways to sock it to consumers. But unless you check and double-check your receipts,
you may not realize that you’re getting hit with surcharges, card fees, and delivery fees that never before showed up on your bill.
Businesses desperate for more revenue that are struggling
to defray their own rising costs don’t want price-sensitive buyers to realize they’re actually paying more. Just a few of the stealth price hikes consumers are now encountering include: Shrinkfl ation. Ever notice that those coff ee cups, pre- packaged snacks, and fast-food containers seem to keep get- ting smaller and smaller?
It’s no longer just the smaller
PRESIDENT BIDEN
INFLATION 2021–2024
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics 20%
snack sizes that parents can stuff in kids’ lunch boxes. Repackaging products in a way that seems to off er the customer a lower price for a more “convenient” — i.e., smaller — portion has become commonplace. Producers suggest it gives con- sumers more options, but it actually
means they get less and pay more. Transaction Fees. These used to be included in the cost of
the purchase, and usually still are. But if a retailer asks: “Are you paying by cash or credit?” — look out. It probably means they plan to hit you with a transaction fee for using a credit card, even though that’s more effi cient for the retailer than
BIDEN/MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES / DELIVERY/BURYAKPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK
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