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Host: Shawn Spruce
When the cost of living goes up, your choices boil down to increasing your own income or cutting costs. Inflation is taking a bite out of our personal budgets. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce explores just how much inflation is costing you, how long it’s expected to stick around, what causes it, and which approaches can help you be less strapped for cash with Sunny Guillory (Sioux), Northwest Indian College financial literacy coordinator; Kerry Shabi (Aaniih/Nakoda), business development coordinator at Montana Native Growth Fund; Summer Red, education senior manager at the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE); and Cora Mae Haskell, retiree from Four Bands Community Fund.
Break 1 music: Money Cannot Be Eaten (song) Rosary Spence (artist) Maskawisiwin (album)
Break 2 music: Umumutayayata (Rolling Thunder) (song) Clark Tenakhongva (artist) Öngtupqa (album)
Dear Shawn,
I love how you host Native America Calling and listen often, as I work at the Institute of American Indian Arts. My descendancy from the Huron-Wendat Nation dates back to the 1600’s and is too far in time to claim true Indigeneity or a lived experience. Regarding today’s discussion, I did want to make everyone aware of former Secretary of Labor of Robert Reich’s recent Instagram posts related to inflation, who points out that inflation is not some abstract concept arising with no reason, and that inflation is grossly misrepresented and skewed by all media.
Robert Reich is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton. Robert B. Reich is currently the Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He has written eighteen books, including the bestsellers The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
RECENT POSTING BY ROBERT REICH:
“Hourly wages grew by over 5% in the past – year but prices rose 8.6%. that means, adjusted for inflation, workers actually got a 3% a 3% pay cut. “
“Let’s be clear: inflation is being driven in large part by monopolies that are driving up prices for the sake of profit.”
Thanks for having our Education Senior Manager, Summer Red! Here’s the resource she shared: https://findanafc.org/home/pro-bono/