Inflation – Deep Left Field

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell set a reporter from Fox Business straight on the basics of the U.S. economy and inflation Wednesday during a press conference.

During the press conference, reporter Edward Lawrence suggested that government spending was partially responsible for inflation, remarking:

“Inflation has been rather sticky, so do you need help from the fiscal side to get inflation down faster?”

Powell replied:

“We don’t give advice to the fiscal authorities, and we assume that we take fiscal policy as it comes to our front door, stick it in our model along with a million other things, and we have responsibility for price stability. And we will get inflation down to 2% in time.”

Lawrence tried again to link spending to inflation:

“But the spending that’s happened is working against what you are doing, right? So it’s prolonging inflation?”

That led Powell to dress down Edwards:

Last time you went to the grocery store, how much did you pay for a gallon of milk?

I was in the grocery store on Wednesday and one of my purchases was a gallon of 2% milk, for which I paid $4.06.

But according to Fox News host Sandra Smith, she had to pay $11 for a gallon of milk in New York, Mediaite reports:

“You have the egg-o-meter, I have the milk-o-meter. I bought a gallon of milk last night. Granted we live in New York, things are higher priced than in a lot of other areas in the country. It is nearly $11 for a gallon of milk at a New York grocery store.”

Complaining about inflation, Fox anchor Sandra Smith says it's nearly $11 for a gallon of milk in New York — there's no way this is true, right?

New Yorkers, help me out here. pic.twitter.com/Cs2i17KVrd
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) April 22, 2022

Even in New York, the only thing you would pay $11 a gallon for is certain select organic brands of milk. But the average gallon costs nowhere near that, no matter were in the U.S. you happen to be.

According to the USDA’s ’s Agricultural Marketing Service, “the average price for a gallon of milk in NYC rose from $4.60 at the beginning of the year to $4.69 in March.”

Twitter users were only too happy to declare Smith’s statement to be complete bullshit, because it most certainly is.

Nah. $2.79 for a half gallon last night.
— Erin Durkin (@erinmdurkin) April 22, 2022

Tell me you've never bought your own groceries without telling me you've never bought your own groceries https://t.co/EL535LpxZM
— Emily C. Singer (@CahnEmily) April 22, 2022

$4.39 at Morton Williams on First Avenue on the UES. https://t.co/nolw4OUDkK
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) April 22, 2022

Some cows are just super greedy.
— REFrankel (@REFrankel) April 22, 2022

If you factor in the cost of your personal assistant going to the store to get you a just gallon of milk to wash your face with, then yes.
— Uncle Seven (@Bring_me_TP) April 22, 2022

Unicorn milk was never cheap to begin with. . .
— Holy Bullies (@holybullies) April 22, 2022

https://twitter.com/Tmbrdly1964Tom/status/1517584935443263489?s=20&t=JqVLD85hMXqPJrjEDhv3Fw

https://twitter.com/RobbLoeb/status/1517504237906898945?s=20&t=JqVLD85hMXqPJrjEDhv3Fw

Another day, another lie from Fox News. It’s their calling card.