The money supply just hit a fresh record near $23 trillion, and the Fed is back to buying $40 billion of Treasurys a month. This is what actually debases a currency. The CPI can read tame while the money stock swells like this, and the dollars in your account lose ground anyway.… pic.twitter.com/GUio7LiPeW
— Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® (@kurtsaltrichter) September 18, 2026
Americans face a renewed squeeze on their paychecks as inflation once again rises faster than wage growth, putting further pressure on consumer wallets.
“A substantial number of Americans are worse off, their incomes are not keeping up with the price increases right now,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, told CNBC.
Consumer prices rose 3.4% in August from a year earlier, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, increased just 3.1% over the same period, according to a separate BLS report released Friday. Real average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, fell 0.1% from July and were down 0.3% from a year earlier in August.
The gap between inflation and wage growth is a stark reminder that workers are losing purchasing power.
Translation. You’re now getting poorer by the week and your 2-3% annual raise isn’t going to help you. https://t.co/Hl4aryZ7sL
— QE Infinity (@StealthQE4) September 18, 2026
Americans now owe a record $1.35 trillion on their credit cards.
They are paying north of 22% to carry it, so a bigger slice of every paycheck goes to interest before it buys a thing. That is spending power draining straight out of the consumer, and the consumer is 70% of this… pic.twitter.com/EXwedskCUo
— Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® (@kurtsaltrichter) September 18, 2026
Because we are in recession. https://t.co/rrs09nG4Fe
— EndGame Macro (@onechancefreedm) September 18, 2026
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