Congress could do more to fight inflation

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The rate of inflation is slowing, but still uncomfortably high, according to today's consumer price index report. The Federal Reserve has been front and center in fighting inflation, cranking up interest rates for more than a year. But how about Congress? It has fiscal tools to help bring down prices, but they've largely gone unused. On today's show, we look at why.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:03.4	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.2	I'm Patty Hirsch.
0:14.8	Some mixed inflation news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the consumer price
0:19.3	index that measures the cost of goods and services in the US continued to rise up 0.4%
0:25.1	last month.
0:26.1	But the rate of inflation is slowing, the CPI rose 4.9% in the 12 months through April,
0:31.8	that's down from 5% last month.
0:33.8	But the upshot is that inflation is still unpleasantly high in the United States, and all
0:38.8	eyes are still on the Federal Reserve to see what Fed Chair Jay Powell's next move is
0:43.5	going to be.
0:44.5	With the Federal Reserve isn't the only agency with inflation fighting superpowers, Congress
0:49.6	has got some pretty serious muscle when it comes to influencing or spending.
0:53.1	And they're quite happy to use those powers to juice the economy.
0:56.5	But when it comes to stopping us from running too hot, we haven't seen much in the way
1:00.0	of legislation coming out of Capitol Hill, although there's been a fair bit of shade thrown
1:04.0	at the Fed.
1:05.0	So on today's show we're going to look at what powers the Congress has to fight inflation,
1:10.3	and find out why those powers aren't being used.
1:12.6	And what that might mean for the long-term balance of power between elected legislators
1:17.4	and the unelected Federal Reserve.
1:19.0	That's coming up after the break.
	...

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