CNN Business’s so-called “senior writer” can’t seem to get the hint that her ongoing narrative war against the Trump economy is flopping harder than Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
After CNN’s Alicia Wallace desperately scrambled to throw cold water on the blockbuster January jobs report showing growth doubling expectations, she tried her hand again with poo-poohing January inflation data which came in significantly less than estimated at a 2.4 percent rate increase year-over year.
“Inflation slowed in January, but some prices are still biting,” read Wallace’s ridiculous February 13 headline. Instead of admitting that the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics defied “fears of a tariff-induced hike in overall costs” — as ABC News conceded — Wallace chose to editorialize the story to saturate it with negative spin:
However, certain details of the latest Consumer Price Index presented a more sobering picture: Some price pressures aren’t just persisting, they’re accelerating,” putting a spotlight on items such as travel, transportation and recreation prices. But as Wallace herself admitted, “Some of these increases could be tied to new year price adjustments or seasonality.
That context literally undercuts the whole argument because it nuances the origins of the price hikes in the sectors she’s bleating about.
Great Scott! Talk about doing the utmost to strain out gnats while swallowing a camel. It’s worth reminding our readers that Wallace is the same supposed journalist who celebratorily declared that “Inflation is nearly back to normal,” when prices were increasing at a 3.1 percent annual rate under Biden’s administration in December 2023. That’s .7 points higher than the current 2.4 rate she’s twisting into a pretzel to fit her Trump economy bad narrative.
Wallace even wielded RSM Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas, who claimed, “‘While mild topline inflation is encouraging, it would be premature to declare victory on inflation.’” That’s a completely different song than the one CNN flunkies were singing a couple of years ago for Biden, such as when CNN Business Executive Editor David Goldman wrote prior to the 2024 election, “America won the war on inflation. You still think the economy stinks.”
Wallace made the whole subject of her latest griping hinge on the month-over-month increase in core consumer prices — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — to kvetch over how it “accelerated to a five-month high of 0.3% from December’s 0.2%.” But this was after she just admitted that annual “[c]ore CPI slowed to 2.5%, its lowest rate since March 2021, right before the pandemic-era inflationary spike.” She then kneecapped her argument further by admitting that “[t]he monthly reads on those categories can sometimes be quite volatile; however, they also can be telling for where consumers are feeling pinched or seeing some welcome relief.”
One step forward, two steps back?
Wallace also complained about how “Tariff-sensitive items also went up.” But Wellington-Altus Chief Market Strategist James E. Thorne underscored February 13 in an X post that the latest inflation data shows prices are being "overwhelmingly" driven by shelter, but “[t]here is still no evidence of any tariff-related inflationary pressure.”
Just take the “L,” Wallace.
