Category: Cost of Living
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Trump’s beef order asks importers to sell at a 25 percent discount, and nothing in it requires them to
President Trump signed a proclamation in late August that temporarily lets more imported beef into the United States at a lower tariff rate, and the White House says the point is a 25 percent price cut on that beef. But read the actual text of the order, and there is no line that forces an…
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Electricity is up 37 percent in five years, more than rent, gasoline or groceries
Electricity has quietly become the household bill nobody can shop around, and the government’s own price data now backs that up in hard numbers. Comparing Consumer Price Index figures from July 2021 to July 2026, the cost of residential electricity climbed faster than rent, gasoline or the weekly grocery bill — the four largest recurring…
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Employer health costs are set to rise 8.2 percent next year, the steepest jump since 2003
Workers with job-based health insurance are bracing for the steepest premium increase in more than two decades. A new survey from benefits consultant Marsh projects that employer health plan costs will rise 8.2% in 2027 even after companies trim benefits to soften the blow, the largest such increase since 2003. For a household already juggling…
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The Justice Department pulled Walmart, Costco, Amazon and Kroger into its beef price investigation
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has widened its year-long look at beef prices beyond the meatpacking plants and onto the shelves where households actually shop. Four of the country’s biggest grocery sellers — Walmart, Costco, Amazon and Kroger — are now among eight retailers that received formal letters asking about recent increases in retail beef…
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Six months of war has added about $1,250 to a typical household’s gasoline and heating bills
Six months after the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran, the war’s economic fallout has moved well past headlines about the Strait of Hormuz. It has landed in the household budget: at the gas pump today, and in the heating bill this winter. A new analysis from the association representing the state…
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The first 100,000 tons of duty-free imported beef opened September 1 and closes at month’s end
A new 30-day window for cheaper imported beef opened this week, timed to a cattle shortage that has pushed ground beef prices to some of the highest levels on record. Starting September 1, the first of three monthly allotments of duty-reduced lean beef trimmings became available to importers, and it closes again at the end…
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Home prices rose just 1.5 percent in June, a 13th straight month of losing to inflation
The government’s inflation gauge and the country’s most closely watched home-price index moved in opposite directions again in June, and the gap between them has now persisted for more than a year. S&P Dow Jones Indices reported on August 25 that its national home price index rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier in June,…
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One in three households under $50,000 spends at least 5 percent of income on electricity
Electric bills have become a bigger line item for lower-income households than they were even a few years ago, and a new federal research update puts a specific number on how big. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with the consulting firm Brattle Group, released a July 2026 update to its long-running study of retail electricity…
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Peacock’s price increase reaches current subscribers September 17, adding $24 a year to Premium
Peacock’s higher prices took effect for new sign-ups back on August 18, but current subscribers have had a few extra weeks of old pricing built in. That grace period ends soon: anyone who subscribed before August 18 starts paying the new rate on their next billing date on or after September 17, and for a…
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Diesel reached $5.60 a gallon, nearly 50 percent higher than a year ago
Freight haulers paid $5.599 for a gallon of diesel last week, the fuel that moves nearly every trucked item on a grocery store shelf from the farm or port to the checkout line. That’s down slightly from the week before, but it’s nearly 50 percent above what the same tank cost a year ago —…
