Hourly wages shot up about 6% in America last year, the fastest rise in four decades. Wages do figure into inflation clearly but they are still rising too strongly. In no world is that consistent with getting inflation down to central bank targets of roughly 2%. You'd really want to see wage growth more like 3%.
The killing of a teenager in a Paris suburb has ignited national unrest. We ask what is driving the disquiet, and what it means for a president squeezed on both political sides. In high-inflation times, rising wages worry economists—“wage-price spirals” are a textbook bogeyman. But perhaps the risk is overblown (10:34). And the researchers making burgers from extinct animals (18:22).
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