New CPI Report Makes Joe’s Mudville Wince

Well, the Dow fell a whopping 1,276 pts as Joe’s blarney about a great economy was AGAIN belied when inflation rose faster than expected in August, moderating only slightly from July & keeping prices for ordinary folks painfully high …

Fox News notes the consumer price index report was especially sobering since gas prices have declined sharply in recent weeks. The Labor Dept’s DPI is a broad measure of price for everyday goods including gasoline, groceries and rents. The WSJ said the CPI rose 8.3% in August, down from 8.5% in July & from 9.1% in June, but is STILL “remained close to the highest inflation rate in four decades.” Said Fox: “Those figures were both higher than the 8.1% headline figure and 0.1% monthly decline forecast by Refinitiv economists.” Stocks, the WSJ added, “tanked on the surprisingly hot report," with the Dow plunging nearly 1,300 points "on fears of an increasingly aggressive Fed” that "led investors to sell just about everything." It means the Federal Reserve Board will likely hike its own interest rates another 50-75 base points later this month in its promised make or break effort to cool inflation.

Mind you, the so-called “core prices,” which strip out the more volatile measurements of food and energy that affect households and families most directly, climbed 6.3% from a year ago and above the economists’ forecasted 6.1%. There’s sure no joy in Mudville on this news.

Davd Soul