On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the October Consumer Price Index numbers, and while our current round of Bidenflation is still inflating, there’s nothing too surprising in this latest update.
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Inflation perked up in October though pretty much in line with Wall Street expectations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
The consumer price index, which measures costs across a spectrum of goods and services, increased 0.2% for the month. That took the 12-month inflation rate to 2.6%, up 0.2 percentage point from September.
The readings were both in line with the Dow Jones estimates.
Excluding food and energy, the move was even more pronounced. The core CPI accelerated 0.3% for the month and was at 3.3% annually, also meeting forecasts.
Forecasts aren’t always good news, of course. And, as always, inflation remains an issue not of economics, but primarily of monetary policy; when reporting on the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers, I wrote:
Like anything else, currency is subject to the laws of supply and demand. Fiat currency, like the U.S. dollar, has a higher degree of flexibility than a hard currency. So when the federal government dumps trillions of fiat dollars into the economy, every one is worth less – and has less purchasing power. This is Economics 101, something that a lot of people in Washington would do well to learn. Clearly they haven’t; the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data is in, and it shows that Bidenflation is again worse than projections indicated.
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All of that still applies. In the last few years, we’ve seen trillions of fiat dollars pumped into the economy. This – Bidenflation – is the inevitable result.
See Related: The Numbers Are in, and Bidenflation Is Higher Than Expected – AGAIN
There are a few more interesting tidbits in this report.
Energy costs, which had been declining in recent months, were flat in October while the food index increased 0.2%. On a year-over-year basis, energy was off 4.9% while food was up 2.1%.
Energy costs, of course, have a downstream effect on everything else in the economy – including food prices. Energy is at the heart of everything, and we are now approaching (thankfully) the end of one of history’s most energy-unfriendly presidential administrations.
There’s more; housing and used-car prices are still moving upwards.
Despite signs of inflation moderating elsewhere, shelter prices continued to be a major contributor to the CPI move. The shelter index, which carries about a one-third weighting in the broader index, climbed another 0.4% in October, double its September move and up 4.9% on an annual basis. The category was responsible for more than half the gain in the all-items CPI measure, according to the BLS.
Used vehicle costs also rose, up 2.7% on the month while motor vehicle insurance declined 0.1% but was still higher by 14% for the 12-month period. Airline fares jumped 3.2% while eggs tumbled 6.4% but were still 30.4% higher from a year ago.
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It’s important to note that housing and transport are two economic items that have rather little flexibility; every American needs a place to live and a means of getting back and forth to work so that they can pay for that place to live. Inflation in housing and vehicle markets is very damaging, especially to the lower income brackets.
We have a new presidential administration and a new Congress coming in in January, but an economy the size of America’s is like a petroleum super-tanker; it can’t change course on a dime. It may be months, it may be over a year before we see significant changes wrought by changes in the Trump Administration’s monetary and economic policies. But change we will see, in time.
