Unexpected ways everyday Americans gauge inflation
Throughout the entire election cycle a major topic of public interest was inflation and the seemingly continual rise in the cost of goods in America. With President-elect Donald Trump entering the White House in a few weeks, Americans will be watching to see if he will be able to get a handle on the economy and the prices of goods in the country. In this week’s episode of Capitol Gains, anchor Rachelle Akuffo, Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul, and Senior Columnist Rick Newman discuss the ways everyday Americans use different metrics for gauging inflation compared to measures economists use like the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. Newman explains that everyone gauges inflation differently. While he personally monitors the cost of avocados, he says people watch everything from gasoline, to rye bread, to even the cost of a pound of roast beef. Akuffo and Werschkul admit to monitoring gas prices in their personal lives. “Trump ran this whole campaign on how he's gonna defeat inflation,” Werschkul says. “When you talk to voters in these polls, they actually don't want the inflation to stop. They want deflation, they want inflation to go down. So I think it's gonna be an interesting question, sort of as Trump takes control and is in there, how much can he declare victory on inflation when avocados are still gonna be high and gas levels go up and down?” To learn more, watch more episodes of Capitol Gains here. Capitol Gains is Yahoo Finance’s unique look at how US government policy will impact your bottom line long after the Presidential election polls have closed. This post was written by Lauren Pokedoff.
