America's affordability question

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second of two programmes, we look at Donald Trump's record on the economy one year into his second presidential term. Today, we are asking is the United States still facing a cost of living crunch?

Its economy - the largest in the world - is still growing faster than most others and the stock markets are hitting record highs, yet many Americans say they are still struggling to make ends meet. What's going on? We get the view from our North America business correspondent, Samira Hussain; a data scientist; an economist; and consumers from across the country.

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Rahul Tandon Producer: Craig Henderson Additional production (audio diaries): Niamh McDermott

(Picture: A woman walks down the aisle at the grocery store with her shopping cart looking at shelved goods. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:06.7	Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me,
0:11.6	Rahul Tandon.
0:12.6	And today in the second of two special programmes to mark the first anniversary of President
0:17.8	Donald Trump returning to power, we're asking,
0:24.5	is the US still facing a cost of living crunch?
0:31.9	Inflation is defeated. In the coming weeks, I will be laying out even more plans to help bring back affordability.
0:37.0	If that's the case, why do so many Americans feel worse off?
0:39.0	Under the Trump administration,
0:41.2	price of food has gone up considerably,
0:43.9	and sometimes it's even cheaper for us to eat out.
0:46.6	My grocery bill has actually doubled.
0:48.8	The one that costs me the most is me.
0:51.3	Most people in this country live paycheck to paycheck.
0:53.1	They can't really afford higher prices.
0:54.3	They barely can pay their rent.
0:59.3	That's all coming up here on Business Daily from the BBC World Service.
1:07.8	This is the issue that is currently at the heart of political debate in the world's largest economy.
1:12.3	Before we look at that, let's start by explaining what inflation actually is. Here's a simple definition. It's the rate at which prices increase over time. So what did the
1:19.2	latest figures tell us? Well, they came out last week. Amongst those who've been looking at them
1:24.1	is our North America business correspondent Samira Hussein, who started by
1:29.0	telling me how the statisticians pull together the inflation figures.
	...

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