Inflation Costs Expert Solutions Roundup: Why Should We Pay More Attention to the First Dollars of General Recession? Some Recent CNN Opinion Series “America’s Future Start Now”

CNN Opinion series “America’s Future Start Now” gives people a chance to discuss the issues they’re affected by, and experts offer their proposed solutions. The authors have their own views in these commentaries. CNN has more opinion.

Linda Stewart spoke out about money being tight after she retired. Soon I was in the red each month, just trying to keep up.” She stopped driving as much, turned her furnace down in the winter and cooked more meals at home.

Overall inflation pressures may have peaked, but relentless price increases at grocery stores and restaurants may not let up anytime soon, and that is hurting millions of Americans.

Thankfully, a return to more normal inflation appears likely to happen on its own. If a Fed-mandated period of elevated unemployment is allowed to happen, it would be much more expensive than any benefit that would come from reducing inflation.

To help people hardest hit by today’s high inflation, the government should raise the minimum wage. In the last two years alone, the federal minimum wage’s purchasing power has dropped 12.2% – a massive hit to the living standards of working people. Increasing the minimum wage to $15 over the course of the next few years is an important step towards a more equitable recovery and it wouldn’t make much of a difference to inflation.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/05/opinions/inflation-costs-expert-solutions-roundup/index.html

Energy Efficiency and the US Economy: The Challenge of Climate Change and the Future of Food Security and Affordable Energy Assistance for Low-Income Families

Heidi Shierholz is the president of the Economic Policy Institute and the former chief economist at the US Department of Labor during the Obama administration.

As a result, US households will likely continue to face higher prices for food well into 2023, especially as the war in Ukraine persists and as bad weather events have ruined crops for next year. This will only increase food insecurity for millions of Americans.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is one program that the Federal Emergency Management Agency could give food from. Additionally, the federal government can make sure that school food programs, which provide nutrition to millions of children, remain fully funded.

The message is clear: As energy companies rake in huge profits, energy is becoming more and more expensive for lower income Americans. The federal government needs to take action now to help families maintain access to affordable energy throughout the winter.

Mark Wolfe is an energy economist and serves as the executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), representing the state directors of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Energy Programs Consortium. He specializes in energy, climate, housing and related consumer finance issues.

The Rise and Fall of Healthcare Costs: Demographic Trends in Urban Inequality, Housing Finance, and Housing Market Inequalities

In 2020, Millennials – who have substantially lower home ownership rates and are more likely to live with their parents than previous generations – were finally starting to make progress toward buying their first homes. The rise in rents, home prices, and mortgage rates are making it more and more difficult for the younger generation to get into homeownership, posing a serious risk to the future of home ownership.

The senior research associate in the Housing Finance Policy Center is named Jung Eun Choi. She studies urban inequality, focusing on housing, urban economics, real estate finance and disadvantaged populations in the housing market.

American families are facing sharply higher costs for everything, including health care. In the first half of the year, one in four Americans delayed or skipped medical care or medicine because of rising health care costs, according to a recent survey from Gallup and West Health. Most survey respondents didn’t believe that Congress would act to lower health costs in the future.

The federal government wants hospitals and insurers to make price information available so that consumers can shop around for the best deal. Because the price varies depending on the consumer’s insurance coverage, which providers deliver the care and the clinical details of the service, it is difficult for insurers or hospitals to give accurate price estimates. To ensure that consumers are getting the best price, the federal government should establish new rules to simplify and standardize the prices for common services, such as joint replacements, or other high-cost elective procedures.

The fee-for-service model is used for most of the care Americans receive. That rewards providers for more services, not better health outcomes. The focus of care would shift from more care to more effective care if you paid a fixed monthly amount for all services. And that would, in turn, reduce costs since consumers would be avoiding unnecessary treatments and, in many cases, reducing the need for more expensive care in future years.

States have impeded the adoption of more efficient health care. The latest example is Medicare rules that restrict the use of video teleconferences. During the Covid-19 epidemic, the rules were temporarily changed so that patients can access care more easily and physicians can see more patients. If the public health emergency is not lifted, there will be added barriers to health services for many seniors. Millions of Medicare beneficiaries will still get timely care, if the Congress acts to resolve this problem.

The flu must wind down by luck. There will be future waves of Covid, but if inflation is to ease, each wave must be less disruptive to global supply chains and labor markets than the previous one. It is likely that China will shut down its economy with the appearance of a single case.

We need good fortune in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war will continue but the real damage to oil, agricultural and other commodity prices must be left behind by the time it ends. As global oil markets have adjusted, prices have retreated. Russia’s aggression could go in many different directions, so it is still a threat.

I don’t think it is a good idea to suggest that getting inflation down is painless. There will surely be setbacks. However, it’s likely we won’t have to endure these sky-high prices too much longer.

Taxing Excess Fossil Profits: The Case for Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Natural Gas, and Coal

Fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal have contributed to record profits for the companies that produce and sell them. Last week, for example, Exxon Mobil reported record profits for a second quarter in a row, as well as Chevron, which almost doubled what they were last year.

The United States has introduced legislation that would tax excess profits. The funds raised by the tax would be divided between single and joint filers who make less than $150,000 a year. The bill should include provisions to tax excess profits being earned by companies that produce natural gas and coal, a step in the right direction.