During a portion of an interview with CBS Senior Business and Tech Correspondent Jo Ling Kent that was aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of “CBS Evening News,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen responded to a question on whether she and President Joe Biden are happy with the current state of inflation by stating that we know that “Americans are experiencing discomfort because some important prices are higher than they were pre-pandemic.” But “people are better off than they were pre-pandemic.”
After recapping the hotter-than-expected January CPI inflation report that showed an increase in monthly inflation for both the overall and core inflation rates from the monthly rate in December with the annual overall rate falling from 3.4% to 3.1% from December while the annual core inflation rate held steady from December at 3.9%, Kent played a clip where she asked Yellen, “Are you and President Biden happy with where inflation is right now?”
Yellen answered, “Well, look, we know that Americans are experiencing discomfort because some important prices are higher than they were pre-pandemic. But what I think is really important is that wages have gone up, along with prices. So, people are better off than they were pre-pandemic.”
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