The Federal Reserve is expected to lift interest rates a half point at its next meeting and more in the coming months, but it may be too late to forestall an economic downturn.
Russian money for Russian gas?
Vyacheslav Lopatin/Alamy Stock Photo
Grain and fertilizer shortages, higher shipping costs and a strong dollar are all pushing food prices up and increasing hunger in dozens of vulnerable countries.
California is seeing some of the highest gas prices in the U.S.
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
The consumer price index, which measures everything from the price of peanut butter to gasoline, jumped at an annualized pace of 8.5% in March 2022 as inflation continued to accelerate.
More than 6 million UK households may now be unable to heat their homes.
Several sites, such as this one near Freeport, Texas, store the hundreds of million of barrels in the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Department of Energy via AP
Consumers are feeling pain at the pump and demanding solutions. Some politicians are pushing gasoline tax waivers – but that means less money to fix roads, and often not much economic relief.
Australia might be a long way away, but fossil fuel price spikes triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are hitting households hard. We could have avoided this pain.
The war in Ukraine will continue to push up food prices as the supply from the ‘Breadbasket of Europe’ is cut in the short term and, possibly, the long term.
(Shutterstock)
The Russian invasion of Ukraine will have global impacts far beyond the region directly involved in the fighting. Food prices will increase, and the effects will be felt by the most vulnerable.