Inflation cools for 12th straight month, FBI director grilled by House GOP: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Inflation cools for 12th straight month

Inflation keeps cooling off. USA TODAY Economic Opportunity Reporter Charisse Jones explains what that means for the economy. Plus, a NATO summit wraps up in Lithuania, without a formal invitation for Ukraine membership, USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen breaks down FBI Director Christopher Wray's grilling by the House GOP, SCOTUS takes up a Second Amendment restraining order case, and women return to the post-pandemic workforce in record numbers.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Thursday, the 13th of July 2023. Today, inflation cools off. What does that mean for your wallet? Plus, a NATO summit wraps up without clear answers for Ukraine on membership, and the FBI Director tangles with the House GOP in a tense hearing.

∎Inflation cooled down again last month, that's according to the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, out yesterday. I spoke with USA TODAY Economic Opportunity Reporter Charisse Jones about the report's findings and what they tell us for the rest of the year's economic outlook. Thanks for hopping on 5 Things, Charisse.

Charisse Jones:

No worries.

Taylor Wilson:

So the CPI came out yesterday, can you remind us what it is and how does this month's report impact consumers?

Charisse Jones:

The CPI is the Consumer Price Index, which is basically a gauge or a measure of a basket of services, and products, goods, that federal officials look at to get an idea of how price increases are pacing. Are prices going up, are they dropping, are they staying the same? The good news is that the June report shows that inflation dropped to 3%. And so basically prices are still going up, but they're going up at a slower pace. So it was at 3% in June, and that was down from 4% the previous month, and it's really down compared to last June when it hit a four decade high of 9.1%. So that basically means that the trend is going in the right direction. Shoppers are probably still seeing things priced a little bit higher than they would like, but it's a lot better than it was a few months ago, particularly if you're shopping for a car or at the supermarket, and buying other goods and services.

Taylor Wilson:

And Charisse, the Fed has been aggressively raising rates since last year. That's meant higher rates for mortgages, car loans, credit cards. What does this CPI report tell us about the Fed's upcoming plans?

Charisse Jones:

Well, unfortunately, because it is still above 2%, which is really the target that the Fed is shooting for, we still may see interest rates go up again at least once or twice more this year. But 3% is a lot closer than two than we've been, so there is also a slight chance that they may push pause on raising these interest rates, which will really be a great thing for consumers who are paying more, as you said, for everything from credit cards to a mortgage, to a car loan. So it's really been bringing a lot of pain, but the whole point was to slow down borrowing so that the economy wouldn't be so overheated and inflation would come down. So there's a good chance they'll probably raise it at least one more time, but there's a smaller chance that they won't, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Taylor Wilson:

What are the biggest drivers of inflation so far this year?

Charisse Jones:

Housing costs have really been through the roof, no pun intended. Rent is up about 8.5% as compared to a year ago, and they may start to moderate a little bit in terms of increases, but that's really been the big problem area. Food prices had also been through the stratosphere, but those have really stabilized. Eggs, for a long time... I don't know if you had this experience, but if you went to the store a few months ago, eggs were something that were going to take a big bite out of your paycheck. Those prices have really come down because the bird flu related problems have eased, but certain things like ground beef and bread products have gone up a little bit. And gas has been up and down. It was up again a little bit in June, but that's moderated as well. So really housing costs have been the biggest issue when it comes to inflation.

Taylor Wilson:

Charisse Jones with some great economic insight for us as always. Thanks, Charisse.

Charisse Jones:

Thank you.

∎Taylor Wilson:

President Joe Biden had strong words in a speech to close out a NATO summit in Lithuania yesterday.

President Joe Biden:

Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken. We will stand for liberty and freedom today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes.

Taylor Wilson:

Biden's speech wrapped up two days of talks with US allies about Russia's war of aggression and the future of the military alliance. Right before his speech, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In that meeting, Biden assured him that a Ukraine move toward NATO membership is, "going to happen." Zelenskyy left the summit without a formal invitation to join, and on Tuesday called it absurd that NATO was unwilling to provide a timeline for membership. Yesterday, Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for aid to the country, while adding that a membership would be, "optimum." Still, some experts say that inviting Ukraine is not immediately in NATO's interests. Mary Kate Schneider, Director of Global Studies at Loyola University Maryland, said that a NATO offer of admission now would limit Ukraine's incentive to strengthen its democratic institutions. And she added that Russia would have no reason to negotiate an end to the war, and might intensify its offensives.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden will wrap up his European trip today with a stop in Finland, NATO's newest member. There, he'll participate in a summit with a number of Nordic countries, including Sweden, which also appears on the verge of joining NATO.

∎FBI Director Christopher Wray defended the agency yesterday against House Republicans. They argued that the FBI suppressed conservative posts on social media, and said they ran illegal searches about US citizens under a foreign surveillance law. I spoke with USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen for more.

Welcome back to the program, Bart.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Bart, what are House Republicans criticizing about the FBI specifically, and how is FBI Chief Christopher Wray defending the agency?

Bart Jansen:

The hearing was wide-ranging as congressional hearings often are. They went after two main points. One was the idea that the FBI maybe helped censor conservative views on social media, particularly leading up to the 2020 election, also during the COVID pandemic about dealing with masks and vaccinations. And then in a different vein, there was also a lot of talk, and this was almost bipartisan, dealing with the reauthorization of basically how the FBI can surveil people sometimes without warrants, and that raises some questions on Capitol Hill. They might have some trouble reauthorizing that legislation.

Taylor Wilson:

So Bart, social media was obviously a big flashpoint of this hearing. What did the argument center on?

Bart Jansen:

Well, there's this concern by Republican members of Congress, in this hearing it was led by the chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, and also Mike Johnson of Louisiana, basically hammering Wray over and over again about the FBI, they argued, trying to influence social media companies to silence conservative voices. The FBI was meeting with social media companies weekly leading up to the 2020 election, trying to prevent misinformation, foreign adversaries putting bad information onto widely disseminated sites. And so they just thought that smacked of basically curbing conservative voices, for instance, speaking out against mandatory vaccines, against the COVID pandemic, against mandatory masking. There was also a very late breaking story before the 2020 election about Hunter Biden's laptop and some salacious details on the laptop that are still being investigated today. Basically they argued that millions of people didn't get to hear about Hunter Biden's laptop because of the FBI's influence in slowing down the distribution of that information.

A federal court in Louisiana last week prohibited the government from trying to influence social media companies anymore. The government is appealing that decision, but Jim Jordan says hey, when the court said the FBI misled, that's a nice way of saying they lied. Well, Wray says there were some factual errors in that decision, and some misinterpretations, the government is appealing it, but he says the FBI's focus is to prevent malign foreign disinformation, and that the FBI is not in the business of moderating content or causing any social media company to suppress or censor information.

Taylor Wilson:

Let's get into that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. What do the different players here say about its implementation?

Bart Jansen:

What it is is in fast breaking cases, the FBI can run queries on even US citizens to basically get a better idea about whether they might be involved with foreign adversaries or doing something hostile against the United States. And the lack of a warrant or a court order is what has lawmakers of both parties worried. Representative Ben Cline, a Virginia Republican, noted that there were 3.4 million warrantless queries in 2021, and another 200,000 last year. So they've reduced dramatically, but he still says it looks like a framework that enables the FBI to spy on countless Americans. Now, Wray says the searches, people who were doing them recklessly, was maybe back in 2018, that there haven't been those kind of bad problems since then. He said there would be profound risks in not reauthorizing this because in some cases it just takes too long to get a warrant, it would take too long to get a court order, and so it would be a body blow to the FBI if they lost this authorization to do these kinds of queries.

The lawmakers, even Democrats, say, well they want to take a look at changes to what are the requirements for not having a warrant. The head of the Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, said that there is bipartisan concerns about the reauthorization, and unless they understand better what the FBI is doing to protect people's privacy, she thinks it's going to be a pretty tough process later this year.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart Jansen, thanks as always.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

∎Taylor Wilson:

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this fall over a potentially blockbuster Second Amendment challenge. A man named Zackey Rahimi has had several legal problems involving firearms dating back to 2019 when he pulled out a gun and shot at a passerby who witnessed him dragging his girlfriend through a parking lot. In another incident, he shot at a driver following an accident, and separately, he threatened another woman with a gun and was charged with aggravated assault. But he's challenging his conviction under a federal law that bars Americans subject to restraining orders from owning guns. Rahimi basically argues that because there was no such regulation when the country was founded, today's federal law must fall. As part of his challenge, he's relying on a Supreme Court decision from last year that ruled gun rules must be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. This new case may be thorny for the gun lobby considering Rahimi's criminal history, but some gun rights groups argue that even if Rahimi is an unsympathetic figure, the federal law is still inconsistent in their view with a Second Amendment. Arguments will likely take place this coming fall.

∎Women are participating in the US workforce in record numbers. That's what a recent Labor Department jobs report shows. In June, nearly 78% of women aged 25 to 54 were working or in the job market. That's the highest number in US history. This year, the number of women that age working or job hunting has grown by over 800,000. Women in the workforce were especially affected by pandemic conditions. COVID lockdowns caused massive job losses in customer-facing service industries that employ more women than men, and many mothers left the workforce during the pandemic to care for their children who were attending school from home. The post-COVID rebound comes after a wider availability in childcare, remote jobs, and flexible work options, and the return to in-person schooling. Women also returned to the job market after labor shortages led to employers offering higher wages, though the larger pool of available workers has stifled wage growth.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inflation still cooling, Christopher Wray grilled: 5 Things podcast