Bidenomics

[formosan]

Happy Meals have become an increasingly unaffordable luxury since Biden took office.
The government uses the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index to measure inflation.

For instance, when President Joe Biden took office, the year-over-year inflation rate was roughly 1.4%. CNN indicated the Biden inflation rate reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022.

Last week, the Labor Department indicated that the CPI for all urban consumers "increased by 0.3 percent in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 0.4 percent in March[.] ... Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.4 percent before seasonal adjustment."

According to the BLS inflation calculator, prices generally increased by approximately 21.5% between December 2019 and March 2024, according to TheStreet.

Some consumers have apparently turned instead to fast-food prices to gauge just how much purchasing power they have lost in recent years.

FinanceBuzz has made historical price comparisons easier, contrasting fast-food menu prices in 2014 and prices in 2024 on the basis of pricing data sourced from ItsYummi.com, FastFoodMenuPrices.com, and MenuWithPrice.com, cross-referenced with restaurants' official websites.

The breakdown claimed that the price of:

the McChicken increased by 199% over the 10-year stretch, from $1.00 in 2014 to $2.99 in 2024;
the McDouble increased by 168%, from $1.19 to $3.19;
medium fries by 138%, from $1.59 to $3.79;
the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal by $122%, from $5.39 to $11.99;
the Oreo McFlurry by 88%, from $2.39 to $4.49;
the 10 Piece McNugget Happy Meal by 83%, from $5.99 to $10.99;
the 4 Piece McNugget Happy Meal by 67%, from $2.99 to $4.99;
the Big Mac by 50%, from $3.99 to $5.99; and
the price of a medium drink increased by 25%, from $1.29 to $1.61.
McDonald's — which has reportedly contested the figures, saying "pricing is set by individual franchisees and varies by restaurant" — is not the only restaurant suffering what some are calling "McFlation."

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen's menu items have, on average, allegedly jumped by 86% in price since 2014. Taco Bell has reportedly seen an 81% average increase. Dining out at Chipotle Mexican Grill now, 10 years later, apparently costs 75% more.

It appears some of the more dramatic price increases have taken place over the past four years.

TheStreet indicated that the price of medium French fries at McDonald's increased by 134.1%, from $1.79 to $4.19 since 2019; the price of the McChicken increased by 201.6%, from $1.29 to $3.89; the price of the Big Mac increased by 87.7%, from $3.99 to $7.49; and price of the cheeseburger increased by 215%, from $1 to $3.15.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts in February, "I think what you're going to see as you head into 2024 is probably more attention to what I would describe as affordability," reported Fortune.

I will find out soon....we buy a DQ cone each to celebrate the start of summer.

[Herman]

Take your trolling to your own thread. Derailing this one because you aren't getting enough attention in your own thread is pretty gay.

Gay is one thing old Joe does well.