Politics blamed for record high inflation in US

With another pop in US inflation reported on Tuesday, the debate will continue whether it is "Putin's price hike" or "Bidenflation".

The price of gasoline has definitely accelerated since the conflict in Ukraine started, but food and energy prices were already on an upward trajectory before that.

The United States Labor Department reported on Tuesday that its Consumer Price Index jumped 8.5 percent in March from 12 months earlier, the highest year-over-year increase since 1981.

From February to March, inflation rose 1.2 percent, the biggest month-to-month increase since 2005. Gasoline prices made up more than half of the rise, soaring 48 percent in the past 12 months.

Supply chain disruptions

The so-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent from February to March, the smallest monthly rise since September. Over the past year though, core prices are up 6.5 percent, the most since 1982.

The oft-cited reasons for the initial rise in inflation were supply chain disruptions stemming from the pandemic. Western sanctions against Russian energy sources primed gasoline prices even more.

"Inflation and gas prices were already bad, and it's a difficult task to pin their rise on a war that isn't front and center for most Americans," read an article in The Washington Post on March 31.

"Evidence now suggests the narrative is coming up well short. Domestic pricing concerns are far outpacing Ukraine on Americans' list of priorities."

Senator Joe Manchin said on Tuesday that "half-measures and rhetorical failures" will not address inflation. He said people in the US deserve to know "the truth" of what caused the price surge.

President Joe Biden visited Iowa on Tuesday to announce the trimming of gasoline prices by about 10 cents a gallon at a limited number of stations by waiving rules that restrict ethanol blending.

Most gasoline sold in the US is blended with 10 percent of ethanol, a biofuel currently cheaper than gas. Biden announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will issue a waiver to allow the sale of a 15 percent ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept 15 because of concerns that it will add to smog in high temperatures.

"But what about his actions before (Russian) sanctions? The President's detractors have argued that he has waged an attack on fossil fuels since he took office," wrote Kyle Isakower for Real Clear Energy on Monday.

"There is no gouging going on in today's gasoline market. Price at the pump is not under the exclusive control of major oil companies. It is based in large part by the price of oil.… So, when Russian sanctions take 3 MBD (million barrels daily) off the global market, there will be an impact."

Australian commentator Caitlin Johnstone took a more cynical view of inflation on her website.

"It's not 'Putin's price hike'. This was all orchestrated by the empire, from root to flower," she wrote. "The goal is to use economic warfare … to either collapse and balkanize the Russian Federation or foment enough discontent to secure regime change in Moscow. This is because Putin refuses to kiss the imperial ring."

Agencies contributed to this story.