more than $3.50 in the u.s. spiking energy grices a huge driver. higher prices and more aggressive actions stemming from the federal reserve to contain that. the biden administration set to announce a $450 million fund aimed at untangling the supply chain bottlenecks. how? a grant program paying for expanding capacity and modernizing sea ports. it should get things from the ships to the shelves. the grant awards are funded through last year s infrastructure bill and will begin this fall. still, trying to untangle the covid supply chain nightmare. thank you for joining us this wednesday morning. i m christine romans. i m laura jarretttt. new day is next. and of coursrse, puppy-friendly. we don t like to s say perfect, but t it s pretty perfect. booking.com, booking.yeah. (vo) verizon is going ultra! and so is manny!
raised interest rates sooner. he said that much is obvious now. to be fair to the fed, very few expected inflation to be this high for this long. they did not expect the supply chain bottlenecks that are largely caused by covid. the fed dropped interest rates to zero almost exactly two years ago to help rescue the economy from covid. it did help, but it s obvious they do not need emergency help right now. consumer prices spiking in february at the fastest pace in 40 years. the fed is stepping in acting like the firefighter, trying to put the fire out by raising inflation rates. the bad news is it feels like the fed is late to the scene here and the more inflation gets further from healthy levels, the more the fed has to do to try to rein it back in. not at all.
peter doocy live on the north lawn. prices have risen over the last several months, jen psaki told us it was caused by supply chain bottlenecks, told us it was caused by post-pandemic increases in demand, but now they are telling us something different, they are saying it is because of the #putin price hike. inflation goes up today, the president s statement blames the putin price hike. are you going to start blaming putin for everything until the midterms? well, we have seen the price of gas go up at least $0.75 since president putin lined up troops on the border of ukraine. that s not the whole story. because the way they measure inflation, they only caught the very, very beginning, not the very beginning, but only caught the beginning of last month so missed the impact of the putin
unemployment rate fell to a pandemic low of 3.6%. the labor department also revised its estimates from january and february, showing an additional 95,000 jobs. but by other measures, the u.s. economy is stuck in a rut. rising inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, the pandemic and the war iav thysontributed to hr prices at the gas station and the grocery store. and for some americans, these price increases have negated higher wages. and despite these challenges, the labor market has remained resilient, with employers adding more than 400,000 jobs for 11 straight months. in fact, some sectors of the economy now employ more people than prior to the pandemic. cbs carter evans starts us off from los angeles. carter, good evening. reporter: good evening, major. america is back in business. most covid restrictions are gone now, businesses are ramping up and they re hiring. today, president biden was quick to take credit. our economy has gone from being on the mend to being on
US gross domestic product increased at a 6.9% annualized rate, the Commerce Department said in its third estimate of fourth-quarter GDP growth. That was revised slightly down from the 7.0% pace estimated in February