Inflation rose 0.6% month-over-month in April, for an annual Consumer Price Index of 3.8%, the Labor Department reports. That’s up from a March CPI of 3.3% marking a reversal of the still Federal Reserve-antagonistic 2.4% for January and February, an improvement over December's extra-tariffy 2.7%. Energy rose 3.8% month-over-month in April, to equal 40% of the increase for all items. Shelter was up 0.6% for the month, with food prices up 0.5%. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]
About Your Finances – In what The Late Show host Stephen Colbert calls “chopper talk” President Trump Tuesday responded to a reporter’s question as he was about to board a helicopter on the White House lawn, on whether he considers the financial situations of Americans in light of the economic ravages of the Iran war (see CPI chart above).
“Not even a little bit,” Trump responded (per The Hill). “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump was on his way to Air Force One, which would then fly to Beijing for Trump’s economic summit Wednesday and Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for their first in-person meeting since 2017.
Except maybe finances of these 17 Americans … Here’s the full list of American business leaders who have accompanied Trump to Beijing (as compiled by SFGate):
•SpaceX/Tesla CEO and X-Twitter owner Elon Musk
•Apple CEO (about to retire) Tim Cook
•Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
•Boeing CEO Robert “Kelly” Orrberg
•Blackrock Chairman/CEO Larry Fink
•Blackstone CEO/Co-founder Stephen Schwarzman
•Cargill Chairman/CEO Brian Sikes
•Citi Chair/CEO Jane Fraser
•Coherent CEO Jim Anderson
•GE Aerospace Chair/CEO H. Lawrence Culp
•Goldman Sachs Chair/CEO David Solomon
•Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen
•Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach
•Meta Vice President/Vice Chair Dina Powell McCormick
•Micron Chair/President Sanjay Mehrotra
•Qualcomm President/CEO Cristiano Amon
•Visa CEO Ryan McInerny
More Kirkland for China … Iran has allowed a China Costco Shipping supertanker cross through the Strait of Hormuz without paying tolls as a “gesture of goodwill,” according to a Costco official, The Wall Street Journal reports. The US war on Iran will be a talking point between Trump and Xi, as China is Iran’s closest trading partner.
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Care About This? – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.511 Wednesday, up $1.529 per gallon over February 27. Diesel is $5.659 per gallon, up $1.862.
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$4 Billion in Two Weeks – Cost of the 11-week war on Iran is up $4 billion over the last two weeks to $29 billion, Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee Tuesday (per The New York Times).
“That’s because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs,” Hurst told the subcommittee.
The figure does not include costs of repairing US Military installations hit by Iranian drones. Nor does it account for an apparently growing shortage of US munitions.
In back-to-back testimony before the subcommittee, war/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to say when the Trump administration would request more money for the war effort. The White House has requested $1.5 trillion in defense spending for the coming fiscal year. –TL
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TUESDAY 5/12/26
De-Gas Tax – President Trump says he will suspend the federal gas tax, which has been frozen at 18-cents per gallon for gas and 21-cents per gallon for diesel for decades. This will require congressional approval, though for that matter so does the US war on Iran.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed for a temporary gas tax suspension, the Chicago Tribune reports, though member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chris Murphy (D-CT), told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Monday on The Source he’s not likely to support any such action that lets Trump extend the war. But will that backfire on Democrats who oppose even temporary gas-price relief for consumers?
Meanwhile, at the pump … Average national price for a gallon of unleaded regular continues to notch down and was at $4.504 per gallon Tuesday, down 1.6 cents from Monday and up $1.521 since February 27. Diesel inched up 1.2 cents to $5.644 per gallon, up $1.851 since the beginning of the war.
Doing the math … Which means that with the federal taxes suspended, a gallon of unleaded regular would cost you $4.324 while a gallon of diesel fuel would cost that semi delivering food to your local grocery $5.434.
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Project Freedom Redux? – President Trump’s plan to free blockaded oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz last week lasted a bit more than two days before the White House dropped it like a cold attorney general.
It’s back. For now.
Trump called the Iranian counterproposal to his administration’s proposal for a ceasefire that presumably would extend or supersede the ceasefire that officially ended Monday evening “that piece of garbage they sent us – I didn’t even finish reading it,” (per The Guardian).
“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says: “sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living.”
Trump says he’s considering restarting US Navy escorts of the ships stopped up in the Strait to try and end the blockade. Check back tomorrow.
Oil price futures rose Monday and so did the stock market, buoyed perhaps by better-than-expected Big Oil financial results last week. Or they know or understand something the rest of us don’t.
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Good Jobs Report – While we were debating the merits or lack thereof regarding socialism in America the Labor Department put out its jobs numbers for April, last Friday. And they were good, at 115,000 added last month. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%.
Marketplace Morning Report’s fave economist, Julia Coronado of the University of Texas at Austin and founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives LLC says the better-than-five-digit number is the result of record April temperatures, which drove growth in seasonal jobs (including, for example, construction). –TL
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MONDAY 5/11/26
Ceasefire, Not Ceasefire? – Tehran has rejected the Trump administration’s latest peace proposal, warning Iran would not hold back from responding to any new US military strikes or allow more foreign warships in the Strait of Hormuz, The Guardian reports.
President Trump Truth Socialed news of Washington’s latest proposal, which he did not detail according to NPR’s Morning Edition. The Islamic Republic’s leadership wants economic sanctions lifted and billions of dollars-worth of its liquid assets in foreign banks released.
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iran are engaged in a "shadow war," according to the NPR report, in which each country says it continues to intercept military drones.
About that blockade … Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS News’ Major Garrett on 60 Minutes Sunday that an end to the US-Iranian war does not necessarily mean the end of Israel’s war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. But the US-Iranian war will have to end with the US seizing Iran’s enriched uranium, Netanyahu said, which means the likely end of Iran’s support for Hezbollah, Hamas and “probably” the Houthis, Netanyahu said.
The PM acknowledged that Israel and the US did not anticipate the likelihood that Iran would block tanker ships navigating through the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think – I’m not sure it was misread,” Netanyahu told Garrett. “But the – you know, there’s a – great risk for Iran to do it. And it took a while for them to understand how big that risk is, which they understand now. No, I – I don’t claim – perfect foresight, and nobody had perfect foresight. Neither did the Iranians.”
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More About That Blockade – Oil prices rose 4% Monday morning after the war of words between President Trump and Iran’s leaders escalated, but the price of unleaded regular gasoline and diesel fuel notched down a bit from weekend prices, according to AAA. The national average gas price was down 1.6 cents from Wednesday, May 6 – the last day we published prices – to $4.52, while diesel was down 3.8 cents to $5.636. Those averages are up $1.537 for gas and $1.839 for diesel since just before the war began February 28.
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Up on The Hill – The Senate is in session Monday with confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell with Kevin Warsh a top priority for Republicans. Off the floor, Senate Republicans are preparing for upcoming votes on budget reconciliation bills, including $1 billion in funding for Secret Service security upgrades for Trump’s ballroom on the former site of the White House East Wing and a filibuster-proof bill for immigration enforcement spending, according to CQ Roll Call.
The House of Representatives returns Tuesday with 2027 military construction and Veterans’ Affairs spending and biofuels legislation on its agenda.
Democrats are expected to force action on war powers in each chamber, Roll Call reports. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa