Inflation in the United States surged to a 40-year high last month, and many experts fear the trend will continue for months if not years.
Surging gas, shelter, and food prices have become a major political problem for President Joe Biden, whose approval rating has plunged in recent months.
So what are Biden and his allies doing to tackle inflation? Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discussed the administration's agenda in a new interview.
Permanent Or Transitory InflationSpeaking with Yahoo Finance, Buttigieg conceded that inflation is a major issue, but reassured the public that it will not be permanent.
"I don't think anything is permanent, but I think it's clear that this is a serious economic issue," the transportation secretary said.
"The president has been focused on prices and the effect on Americans for some time," he added, before explaining what the Biden administration is doing to address inflation and reduce the surging prices of goods and services.
Freight Logistics Optimization WorksAs Buttigieg explained, the Biden administration launched this week Freight Logistics Optimization Works, or FLOW.
The program is essentially a data-sharing imitative meant to tackle inflation by ensuring companies across the country have access to information regarding the supply chain.
Several large corporations have already signed on to the program, including FedEx, UPS, and Target.
The program's launch comes as investors are sounding the alarm bells and warning that inflation could end up being permanent due to unresolved supply chain issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Buttigieg said that "a lack of data sharing" seems to be the main problem for many "players in our supply chain."
"A lot of things you might assume are shared actually aren't. So that cargo owner for example might not actually know what containers their goods are in. The trucker might not know if a container that they're showing up to a warehouse to pick up is actually going to be there," the transportation secretary noted.
"These are the kinds of things that we can improve through voluntary data sharing agreements," he added.
Federal Reserve
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it would be raising interest rates for the first time in three years.
According to The New York Times, the Federal Reserve's goal is to control inflation and avoid recession at the same time, which will not be an easy task.
For the time being, it remains unclear if the economy can withstand this new policy since the coronavirus pandemic is still raging and Russia is waging a war against Ukraine.
]]>The Inquisitr
