Total consumer price inflation, which was at 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2005, has been and will continue to be affected by changes in the prices of crude oil and natural gas.
Analysis by Bhutta and others uses data from the Survey of Consumer Finances to assess how the cash assistance (expanded unemployment insurance benefits and stimulus payments) under the CARES Act would help families cope with job loss and find that the CARES Act dramatically improves households’ financial security; see Neil Bhutta, Jacqueline Blair, Lisa J. Dettling, and Kevin B. Moore (2020), “COVID-19, the CARES Act, and Families’ Financial Security,” working paper, July.