Washington, D.C. — Following new Consumer Price Index (CPI) data indicating that inflation is reaccelerating across the country, rising at a rate 0.5% in January and 3% over the past 12 months, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“The latest inflation statistics are both bad in and of themselves and dramatically understate the cost of living crisis in America, which is largely a result of excess corporate profits and monopoly power,” said Matt Stoller, Research Director at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Credit costs, for instance, are not included in the CPI index, but they are much higher than they should be, and will go even higher now that the regulator tasked with controlling costs for consumers—the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—is gone. The Federal Reserve needs to be radically revamped, its leadership has been catastrophically wrong for decades on virtually every key policy question, from missing the financial crisis to missing obvious problems at Silicon Valley Bank.”

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.