The Associated Press is feverishly trying to stoke doom and gloom on the heels of a welcome inflation report showing prices increasing less than expected. This, of course, is after the decrepit outlet spent the past four years attempting to put lipstick on the morbidly obese pig of President Joe Biden’s atrocious economy.
“Inflation cooled again even as some tariffs took effect. But economists don’t expect that to last,” read the ridiculous spin-job headline from AP economics writer Christopher Rugaber. Prices increased at 2.3 percent on a year-to-year basis in April, which was beneath expectations of a 2.4 percent increase and the lowest since February 2021, according to CNBC.
But for Rugaber, random economists whipping out their defective crystal balls was somehow news aside from the relatively good inflation figures. Not a good look for the same guy that did his utmost to spin bad inflation news for Biden when the numbers didn’t suit his preferred leftist narrative.
In February 2024, when consumer prices came in hotter-than-expected at 3.1 percent year-over-year in January, Rugaber joined a chorus of left-wing echo chamber outlets spinning themselves silly to claim that inflation “cooled.” Now that President Donald Trump was in the White House, Rugaber’s strategy predictably shifted to twisting good news as somehow being bad news.
Spot the trend yet?
“Inflation cooled for the third straight month in April even after some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect, though economists and many business owners expect inflation will climb by this summer,” Rugaber bleated in his lede paragraph.
Newsflash Rugaber: predictions aren’t news.
Rugaber also wrote that “Grocery prices dipped 0.4% from March to April in what will come as a relief to many people stretching family budgets for the basics. It was the biggest decline in food costs at home since September 2020.” Here’s the context that Rugaber left out, as Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni pointed out in a May 13 X post:
Food prices in Apr declined for [the] 1st time since… *checks notes* ...Nov '20, the last time Trump was president.”
Even Trump’s recent landmark deal with China to drastically slash tariffs on a reciprocal basis to 30 percent from the initial 145 percent levels was also poo-pooed by Rugaber. “Yet the additional 30% duties, on top of other import taxes, will likely affect prices.” But nowhere did Rugaber mention that this tariff detente was only temporary pending a final agreement between the two countries, as Trump signaled that China is apparently ready to open its markets to U.S. businesses.
How would a potential trade deal with China benefit the U.S. economy and nullify inflation’s effect on consumers? Well Rubager’s readers wouldn’t know, because he didn’t bother doing the work to explain it.
