INFORMANT

TRANSCRIPT

The Operator: Welcome back. The tape is printing a squeeze on American paychecks: consumer prices rose 3.4 percent year over last August, while average hourly earnings climbed just 3.1 percent in the same stretch.

The Operator: According to CNBC Markets, that inflation gap left real wages down 0.3 percent compared to a year earlier, even as energy costs pushed gasoline prices up 3.9 percent in August alone.

The Operator: And the mood is sourer still; The University of Michigan's Survey of Consumers reports headline sentiment hit an index of 47.8 this September, marking the second-lowest reading since data collection began in 1952.

The Operator: Across the pond, France's agriculture ministry warns output could hit a seventy-year low as heatwaves ravage the harvest, with temperate areas like the Loire Valley suffering most from the drought.

The Operator: Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh faces a tough vote this week on an expected rate hike, as the committee remains divided after that nine-to-three split in July.

The Operator: We'll keep watching the tape for any new prints. This is The Wire.

The Operator: That's the show. We're on Spotify and YouTube — if this earned it: like, subscribe, tell a friend. And housekeeping: the machine that writes this gets tuned constantly for cleaner news. The numbers are real; the jokes are not.