From The Motley Fool:
... Unquestionably, these hurricanes were respective disasters for Texas and Florida, and it's going to take months for some individuals and families to get their lives back together. ...
But the more immediate impact from the U.S. being hit with this double-whammy is that it's pushed crude oil prices, and thusly prices at the pump, higher. ...
More importantly, per the BLS' August report that was released last week, the CPI-W increased to 1.9% on an annualized basis from the 1.6% reported in the previous month. This implies that Social Security beneficiaries are in line for a larger benefit increase in 2018 than was expected just a month or two ago. ...
Harvey did not come ashore until August 25, so I doubt it was responsible for the increase in gasoline for August. However, there was an increase of over 10% in gas prices in early September, which definitely could be Harvey-related. Since gas accounts for a little over 4% of the CPI-W, and the COLA uses 3 months of data, the increase in gas prices could increase the COLA by about 0.2%. However, assuming that the gas price increases are temporary, this will likely cause the COLA to be lower next year. (Also, I think most of this year's COLA could be eaten up by Medicare increases.)
ReplyDeleteThat might be one of the upside to these horrible mess. I feel for these people and hope they weather the storms well. From a town that has had tornadoes touch down in the past 3 years more then we have seen in my whole life in my town. So keep your family and pets well and ill pray that no one dies for you.
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