Stepping on a Lego in bare feet hurts. Once you know the Lego is there, and it hurts when you step on it, you can’t ignore it. That Lego is right out in the open, after all.
High inflation feels very similar. At first it’s a shock, then it hurts, then you just can’t pretend it’s not there. Unlike a stray Lego brick, though, you can’t just tidy inflation away. (That’s the Fed’s job.)
Inflation robs you in the subtlest possible way. And once you know high inflation is there, and it bleeds your buying power month after month, it’s hard to downplay or ignore. At least for you and me.
But dismissing high inflation and hand-waving it away with vague excuses? That’s precisely what the Fed, the Treasury, the entire Biden administration and cheerleading “experts” appear to be doing.
Why? Because most Americans seem to be ignoring them.
“The headline CPI numbers have shock value, for sure”
This has been widely reported, but just so we’re on the same page:
Consumer prices increased 5.4% in June from a year earlier, the biggest monthly gain since August 2008.
That’s what Jamie Cox of Harris Financial Group meant when he told CNBC, “The headline CPI numbers have shock value, for sure.”
Yes indeed. This is the largest one-month jump since 2008. If you take the “lowest of the lowball” Core CPI measure, which ignores food and energy prices (because nobody really needs to eat, right?) the June annual inflation rate is only 4.5%, the biggest jump in 30 years.
The article called this rise “higher than expected.” That’s one way of putting it. Like saying a wreck that totals your car is “inconvenient.”
We shouldn’t worry, though! This is just transitory, just a blip of supply chains and post-pandemic pressures relaxing. Remember?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
