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hello Superstars welcome to CNN 10 I am
your host on this glorious Wednesday my
name is John Zarin you might notice I am
filling in for Koy wire I may not be
your regular host but it is still a
hasht your word Wednesday so keep an ear
out for your V vo cab word in today's
show let's get started with something
exciting math well more specifically
inflation the Bureau of Labor Statistics
the government agency that collects data
about the health of the US economy
released the first measure of inflation
in 2024 known as the Consumer Price
Index inflation is an increase in the
price of goods and services and during
the pandemic prices surged reaching a
high of
99.1% in June of 2022 the Federal
Reserve the Central Bank of the US that
sets policy for banks and money has been
taking steps to make that rate go down
and it has on Tuesday the Consumer Price
Index showed Prices rose by 3.1% for the
past 12 months that ended in January
that increase was just 3% from December
overall that's a good thing but it's not
as good as analysts were hoping for
experts really wanted inflation to be
under 3% and the reason the numbers
weren't as good as some had hoped is
because of a few parts of the economy in
particular food and housing they
continue to experience higher than
normal inflation on the other end of the
spectrum though Energy prices like gas
went down significantly that's good news
for those who need to fill up their gas
station or heat their homes this winter
so inflation prices go up up but as much
as everyone wishes for prices to just
decrease back to prepandemic levels it's
actually not good for the economy if
that happens CNN business and politics
correspondent Vanessa yur cavish
explains what deflation is and why we
want to avoid it we hear you we feel you
and we get it inflation sucks and
Americans are paying the price literally
rents have been falling but it's still
the biggest share of what we pay every
single month it's where we feel higher
prices the most but the US economy has
somehow pulled off a miracle low
unemployment Rising wages plentiful jobs
with falling inflation without a
recession but many of you still feel
like things are too expensive and they
still are here's the thing as much as it
would be great to see prices drop we're
never going to pay 2019 prices again
pandemic or not that would be something
called deflation when prices fall sounds
great right wrong deflation is something
we don't want to see when there's
deflation it means there's less demand
which can lead to things like layoffs
high unemployment and falling incomes
that's what happened in the Great
Depression the Federal Reserve is doing
everything in its power not to let that
happen what we do want to see is
disinflation or slowing the rate at
which prices increase that pushes down
the overall infl inflation rate and what
has been happening since the summer of
2022 when inflation hit a 40-year high
of
99.1% in a single month and the reason
prices have cooled is because of the
Federal Reserve raising interest rates
the fed's goal is a 2% yearly inflation
rate that's what we're all used to we're
not there yet but we are close yet
despite progress it still feels painful
some of this isn't about numbers it's
Psych logical it's about history and
your age there have been three previous
moments of great inflation since World
War II not including this one baby
boomers and Gen X have experienced High
inflation in their adult working lives
when it topped
12.3 and
14.8% and had mortgage rates at 10% and
nearly
19% but for Millennials and gen Z this
is our first time and it just feels more
painful 10-second trivia time when was
the oldest known Valentine scent was it
the 14th century the 15th century the
16th century or the 17th century if you
said the 15th century you've won our
hearts according to the British Library
the oldest known Valentine was written
in 1415 by Charles the Duke of Orleans
to his wife while he was imprisoned in
the Tower of
London well today is Valentine's Day and
when we think of this special holiday of
course we think of love we think of
romance but love can also hurt sometimes
especially when it comes to a breakup so
we spoke to a biological Anthropologist
who explains to us exactly how our
brains react when we get rejected and
what can help to repair a broken
heart
romantic love and attachment are basic
survival mechanisms that evolved
millions of years ago so that we could
find the right partner and send our DNA
into tomorrow it's a basic human
survival mechanism Helen Fischer is a
biological Anthropologist who studies
romantic love and attachment and how it
affects the brain not only when you fall
in love but also when you fall out of
it nobody gets how to love alive we all
suffer when we've been rejected when I
and my colleagues put 17 people who just
been rejected in love we found about six
or seven things that happen in the brain
of everybody a brain region link with
feelings of romantic love be remain
active you don't fall out of love with
somebody just because they dumped you as
a matter of fact you can even love them
more a brain region link with feelings
of deep attachment um become active
you're still feeling attached to the
person a brain region linked with
physical pain becomes active when you've
been rejected uh and then there's three
brain regions linked with craving and
addiction particularly a particular
little uh Factory called the nucleus
accumbens and that factory becomes
active with any kind of addiction like
gambling addiction food addiction and
it's a brain region that becomes active
as well when you have been rejected in
love I do think that romantic love is an
addiction can be a perfectly wonderful
addiction when it's going well and a
perfectly horrible addiction ition when
it's going poorly basically we suffer
because from ancient times this
jeopardized your ability to send your
DNA on into tomorrow and that's your
survival no wonder we suffer so much but
it's not all pain and suffering there is
one thing Fisher noticed that helps ease
the feelings of heartbreak and rejection
the longer from that moment of rejection
with more and more time you see less and
less activ in brain regions linked with
attachment we've been able to prove that
time does
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heal today's story getting a 10 out of
10 we head to a Senior Living Center in
Kentucky where a Valentine's Day
Challenge is bringing some love and
Euphoria to their elderly residents
Megan mannering with CNN affiliate WLEX
brings us this realworld example of how
you can help other others with just pen
and paper oh my
goodness that is clever Barb Pace will
admit she's a sucker for a handmade
Valentine so I'm told that these came
from a class of students from
mariles
really oh look at that there's just
something about getting mail it reminds
her of the letters her husband sent when
he served in the Army we could not wait
for the male to come having each person
receive something will make a smile and
a smile can go a long ways for various
reasons some seniors are reluctant to
leave their rooms but on Valentine's Day
the love will come to them the long
story short is the impact that it makes
on each person they hope you'll consider
lending a hand taking pen to paper and
the Valentines don't need to say a lot
because the time it took to send them
says at all thanks to Mr kon's class at
West depford Middle School in West
depford New Jersey for submitting our
hash your word Wednesday winner Euphoria
Euphoria a noun meaning a feeling of
intense happiness just as I'm feeling
right now well done I hope you find as
much Euphoria in vocab words as I do and
now for the best part of our show I am
giving a shout out to the Black Knights
of stouton high school in stouton
Massachusetts rise up and a shout out to
Alder Creek Middle School in Milwaukee
Oregon go Panthers that's our show today
thank you for letting me be your guest
host on this Wednesday fear not KY will
see you back here tomorrow we are
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CNN