The World Blog by humble servant.

US sanctions against Russia are having a “huge” impact on the rising food and energy prices at home, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has conceded. Yellen was asked during the New York Times’ DealBook DC Policy Forum on Thursday if already soaring US gas prices would continue to increase. “It’s unlikely that gas prices are going to fall anytime soon,” Yellen replied. She later added that the issue is tied to global oil prices, which have also been rising. “Europe is trying very hard to free themselves from dependence on Russian oil, and our sanctions on Russia… are making a huge difference to food and energy prices,” Yellen said. “I think our sanctions have been remarkably effective. But we continue to tighten them, and oil prices could go further [up].” She said that the growth of the US economy will slow, “but there’s nothing to suggest that a recession is in the works.” Yellen’s comments came two days after she told the Senate that the US has been experiencing “unacceptable le...

President Joe Biden on Friday blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the record gas prices and 40-year-high inflation currently rocking the US. Amid dismal polling figures, Biden insisted that his administration is attempting to curb runaway costs. Speaking at the Port of Los Angeles, Biden touted his administration’s efforts to ease supply-chain backlogs and called on Congress to crack down on global shipping companies that he claimed had unfairly jacked up their prices since the Covid-19 pandemic. However, his speech came hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a grim report showing that consumer prices soared 8.6% in May from 12 months earlier, the highest rate of inflation since 1981. Food and gasoline prices rose by significantly more than 8.6%, with gas increasing by nearly 50% since last year, and reaching record highs in June. Biden attempted to blame Putin for these costs in particular. “Today’s inflation report confirms what Americans already know. Puti...

The losses of international companies from Western sanctions on Russia have exceeded $59 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing data from public statements and securities filings. According to the report, nearly 1,000 Western businesses have reported plans to leave Russia or cut back operations in the country. The write-downs of Russian assets have so far covered a wide variety of industries, from banks and breweries to manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and shipping companies, it said. Fast-food giant McDonald’s expects to write-off up to $1.4 billion after agreeing to sell its Russian business to a local licensee. ExxonMobil may incur losses of $3.4 billion after halting operations of an oil and gas project in the Russian Far East. “This period of loss is not the end of it,” said the managing director of risk-advising firm Kroll, Carla Nunes, as quoted by the WSJ. “As the crisis continues, we could see further financial fallout, including indirect effects...

UK healthcare workers have been calling in sick because they can’t afford the gasoline they need to get to work, public services union Unison revealed on Thursday. The possibility of widespread strikes looms in the coming months as the government has refused to increase wages, fearing a wage-price spiral fed by runaway inflation. “We’re actually hearing of people who would rather phone in sick because they don’t have the money to fill up their cars and do their jobs,” Unison General Secretary Christina McAnea told The Guardian, adding that “more and more people are leaving public services, even in local government,” because the pay is not enough to make ends meet. “We don’t want to bring low-paid workers out on strike. But if there’s no alternative, what else can people do?” she asked, suggesting there is a very real possibility of members walking off the job in the near future as meager pay increases of 2-3% failed to keep pace with galloping inflation rates of 10% or more. “I’m n...

Boeing’s decision to pause production of its popular 737 MAX plane may be due to sanctions imposed on Moscow, air safety expert Roman Gusarov told the newspaper Izvestia. Russia provides critical parts and components to the American aircraft maker. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing had to bring production of narrow-body jets to a halt for 10 days in May due to supply-chain snarls. “Boeing’s dependence on Russian titanium is extremely high, amounting to about 30-40%, meaning that at least every third Boeing aircraft is assembled entirely from Russian titanium,” Gusarov said, adding that apart from titanium, which is vital to aircraft engineering, the company also imports titanium products from Russian producer VSMPO-AVISMA. The analyst added that the US aircraft manufacturer previously received nearly finished parts that were produced at a jointly-run factory in the Russian town of Verkhnyaya Salda. In March, Boeing suspended titanium purchases from Russia, sa...

US inflation hit the highest level since 1981 in May, US Labor Department data showed on Friday. Consumer prices soared 8.6% in May from 12 months earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year surge of 8.3%. On a monthly basis, prices grew by 1% from April to May, a steep rise from the 0.3% increase from March to April. The surging food, gasoline, and rent prices have been imposing severe pressure on American families. Research by the Bank of America Institute showed that petrol prices were eating up a larger share of consumers’ budgets. For lower-income households, spending on gasoline reached nearly 10% of all the expenses on credit and debit cards in the last week of May, the institute said in a report this week. That’s up from about 7.5% in February. Meanwhile, prices at the pump are averaging nearly $5 a gallon nationally and edging closer to the inflation-adjusted record of about $5.40 reached in 2008. Economists, cited by the Associated Press, expect inflation to ease this ye...