'I don't think anything is permanent, but I think it's clear that this is a serious economic issue,' Buttigieg told Yahoo Finance on current inflation levels. 'The president has been focused on prices and the effect on Americans for some time.'
The Federal Reserve is hiking interest rates a quarter of a percent on new mortgages, car loans and credit card interest rates for the first time since the pandemic to “cool off” record inflation.
Western sanctions and other actions to punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine will impose costs on the United States and its allies, and policymakers needed to consider how to mitigate those impacts, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday. Tai, asked about effects on U.S. automakers of revoking Russia's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status -- a move that would allow higher tariffs on imports from Russia -- said that the action was aimed at imposing costs on Russia.