Inflation & Market Data
2020
2020-03-16 During the first Trump administration and the pandemic the stock market crashed.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/10/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/worst-day-on-wall-street-since-1987-as-virus-fears-spread
2021
2021-02-19 Reports indicated Americans were economically “battered” by the pandemic.
https://www.nefe.org/news/2021/02/majority-of-americans-battered-by-pandemic-unsettled-economy.aspx
https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/tracking-the-recovery-from-the-pandemic-recession
2021-10-18 During Trump’s first term and after COVID, numerous suppliers blamed supply chain issues on higher prices and inflation. I haven’t seen prices go down SINCE those claims.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/supply-chain-chaos-is-hitting-global-growth-and-could-get-worse.html
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/beyond-bls/what-caused-inflation-to-spike-after-2020.htm
2022
2022-01-01 Dynamic (or ‘surge’) pricing worsened in 2022, affecting things like airline prices, groceries, travel expenses and ticket prices. The basis of dynamic pricing is to use algorithms to determine the maximum amount of money people are willing to pay for a service or good and exploit that data with the intent of squeezing every available dollar out of every working citizen. The dynamic pricing crisis expanded to digital price-tags and markups, removal of price tags altogether, and price surging at certain times of the day or week. The Iran war, Trump’s tariffs, and emerging “K” economy of 2026 may have exacerbated it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/iran-war-oil-price-surge-worsen-k-shaped-economy-say-economists.html
https://www.fastcompany.com/91451686/dynamic-pricing-becoming-the-rule-not-the-exception
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/03/business/dynamic-surge-pricing-nightcap.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/opinion/dynamic-pricing-algorithms.html
https://www.fastcompany.com/91451686/dynamic-pricing-becoming-the-rule-not-the-exception
https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/2023/05/31/the-price-is-wrong
https://www.branchspace.com/news/airline-dynamic-pricing-ladders
2023
2023-01-01 Concerns of inflated food prices left consumers wondering why prices remained high post-pandemic. Some articles suggested companies were rolling back prices, some suggested price gouging in place of inflation, and some reported the simple economics of price setting.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/inflation-beef-coffee-bananas-food-prices-cpi/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cpi-report-today-inflation-september-2025-tariffs/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i
https://money.com/grocery-prices-may-never-fall
https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2023/q4_feature1
https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/why-are-grocery-prices-still-high-6-years-post-pandemic/
https://inequality.org/article/inflation-price-gouging/
2024
2024-04-01 Due to global climate change, cocoa hit its highest spike in price. Companies used shrinkflation tactics like less than 10% chocolate in some of their products and replacing them with chocolate compound. Companies also replaced cocoa butter with palm kernel oil. The FDA required those companies to re-label their products as “chocolate candy” or “chocolatey” in lieu of “milk chocolate” when reaching below-10% margins. It is estimated that due to climate change chocolate production could come to a halt around 2050.
https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/chocolates-climate-crisis/
https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2025/climate-impacts-on-cocoa
https://www.renewablematter.eu/en/why-price-cocoa-dropping-but-chocolate-rising
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/cocoa
2024-07-18 Trump promised he would reduce inflation on day one.
2025 February
2025-02-05 Global economic growth reached its lowest level since the pandemic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67914707
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-gdp-data-falls-short-trump
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/economy/us-jobs-data-layoffs-hiring
2025-02-06 Everyone saw egg prices soar at the beginning of 2025, but hardly anyone talked about how it was caused by the strain of bird flu that started way back in 2022. When farmers finally rebuilt flocks and replaced sick birds, the prices came down and Trump took the credit.
https://innovateanimalag.org/hpai-costs-2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/18/business/egg-prices-trump
2025 March
2025-03-05 Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik called negative economy data “Biden data” and said Trump will fix the economy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/trump-commerce-chief-lutnick-blames-biden-for-economy.html
2025-03-12 During an Oval office press conference, Trump stated his administration “did a lot of things” that got the egg prices down substantially, cited that oil was down to $65 a barrel, and that inflation was “way down”. He also claimed that his administration had virtually no inflation for 4 years during his last term.
2025 April
2025-04-17 Trump posted on social media calling Jerome Powell “too late” on lowering interest rates and that his “termination cannot come fast enough”.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114352766082542122
https://econclubchi.org/event/hon-jerome-h-powell/
2025 June
2025-06-01 Inflation surged.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/15/cpi-inflation-report-june-2025.html
2025 July
2025-07-30 Trump repeatedly pressured Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. The Federal Reserve pushed back, maintaining that rate cuts are dependent upon economic data and not political pressure.
2025 August
2025-08-05 Trump made several claims about trillions in US income, paying off the debt in large quantities, and issuing dividends to the people.
2025 September
2025-09-01 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual labor inflation rose to 3% from 2024. Gas rose 4.1%, and groceries rose 2.7%.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
2025-09-11 The stock market reached record highs.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/11/investing/us-stock-market
2025-09-12 During an interview with Fox, Trump claimed he had solved inflation.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/business/inflation-data-prices-rising-trump-policies
2025-09-14 According to news outlets, White House advisor Dr. Stephen Miran was sworn in as federal governor for the Federal Reserve Board only minutes before the Central Bank meeting so he could vote to lower interest rates. It was reported that he did not resign from his other seat as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.
2025-09-17 Against Chairman Powell’s advice, the U.S. lowered interest rates.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20250917a.htm
2025 October
2025-10-23 The U.S. surpassed its $38 TRILLION national debt, setting a record high.
2025 December
2025-12-17 Trump decided to hold an 18-minute televised press conference fixating on Biden, deflecting affordability concerns, and touting a great economy that Americans were not seeing or feeling.
2026 February
2026-02-01 Producer Price Index (wholesale inflation) increased at a seasonally adjusted 0.7% for February 2026. The expectation was 0.3%. PPI inflation was at 3.4% for the year. Core PPI was up 3.9% for the year. These are generally indicators of our CPI. These numbers do not yet reflect the cause-and-effect of Trump’s war in Iran. Those numbers would come out in March and April 2026. Better explained in the video below:
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/18/ppi-inflation-february-2026.html
https://www.reuters.com/business/us-producer-prices-surge-february-services-2026-03-18/
https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/stubborn-wholesale-inflation-persisted-in-february
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ppi.pdf
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ppi_03182026.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5whk5ZoomA0&list=WL&index=3
2026-02-19 Investors and other officials reported the Federal Reserve signaling they would have to raise interest rates.
2026 March
2026-03-04 Fast-food CEOs did cameos of themselves eating their own food as a promotion to boost sales.
https://www.today.com/food/trends/mcdonalds-ceo-eats-burger-video-rcna261776
https://www.newsweek.com/mcdonalds-ceo-viral-eats-new-burger-product-11602877
2026-03-19 Israel bombed the South Pars gas field, which holds 75% of gas in Iran.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/19/middleeast/iran-qatar-south-pars-gas-field-explainer-intl
2026-03-26 Wall Street suffered its worst day since the start of the Corona Virus pandemic. The price of crude oil topped $110 a barrel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGFkuH7GRX8&list=WL&index=1&t=388s
https://fortune.com/2026/03/18/oil-prices-110-crude-brent-iran-war-israel-strait-hormuz-lng/
2026-03-26 OECD said Trump’s war was projected to cause inflation to jump from 2.4% to 4.2%.
https://thehill.com/business/5802000-inflation-us-israeli-conflict-iran/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/war-hits-global-economy-us-100000814.html
https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/your-money/war-iran-inflation-oecd/
https://nypost.com/2026/03/26/business/us-inflation-will-soar-to-4-2-if-iran-war-drags-on-says-oecd/
2026-03-27 Sony raised its global price of the PlayStation5 due to microchip shortages, effective April 2 2026.