[Federalist] Retail sales crashed and wholesale prices skyrocketed in May following unprecedented federal spending binges, the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Tuesday. Although most government-mandated lockdowns and school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic ended months ago, the U.S. economy has been slow to bounce back.New data from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Tuesday show that massive federal spending and loose monetary policies from the Federal Reserve have resulted in significant increases in inflation across nearly all goods, services, and sectors of the economy — the biggest inflation spike in 13 years. The latest release shows that producer prices spiked by 6.6 percent during the last year, with prices increasing a whopping 0.8 percent over the last month alone
(10.0% yearly run rate).
The rise in producer prices mirrors that of consumer prices, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which have increased 5 percent over the last 12 months.
At the same time, retail sales also crashed, falling 1.3 percent over the last month, according to data released on Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.