Has inflation begun to ease back to normal? The Biden-Harris administration wants voters to believe it, arguing that consumer-goods prices appear to have stabilized. Have they?
Today’s Producer Price Index shows annualized unadjusted wholesale inflation dipping down to 1.7% in August. That would be welcome news for consumers, but inflation for wholesale consumer foods hit 4.2%. Most of the overall decline came in wholesale energy prices (-8.4%), which consumers will also welcome but may not be all that good of a trade-off from their weekly visit to grocery stores.
Yesterday’s Consumer Price Index offered a mixed bag, too, but not for the middle and working classes. The overall annualized rate dropped from July’s 2.9% to 2.5% in August, again mainly because of a dramatic fall in energy prices (-4.0%). The upward spike continued in shelter costs, shooting up 5.2% in August, and…
