Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Inflation ex-shelter increasing at 1.0% annualized rate since last June; core inflation with actual house prices only up 3.0% YoY

Inflation ex-shelter increasing at 1.0% annualized rate since last June; core inflation with actual house prices only up 3.0% YoY  – by New Deal democrat Two months ago, I “officially” took the position that inflation had been conquered, and that, properly measured, the economy had actually been experiencing deflation since last June. With revisions, the […]

October CPI reports total inflation increases at a 3.5% annual rate

October CPI report: total inflation increasing at 3.5% annual rate, core inflation minus shelter increasing at 2.8% annual rate in the past 4 months  – by New Deal democrat For a full year now I’ve been hammering the fact that the official CPI measure of housing inflation, “owners’ equivalent rent,” seriously lags actual house prices as […]

Previewing July CPI: about gas, housing, and vehicle prices

Previewing July CPI: good news and bad news about gas, housing, and vehicle prices  – by New Deal democrat While July’s consumer inflation is likely to be less intense than in recent months, I don’t see it coming back down to more “normal” levels. The good news is gas; the bad news is vehicles and housing. […]

A Bad June CPI Report

June CPI report: bad, bad, bad, bad, bad  – by New Deal democrat In case for some reason you haven’t already heard, the inflation news for June was uniformly bad. Here is some of the carnage. For the month of June only:   overall inflation was up 1.3%, the highest monthly increase since 2005   […]

Housing prices surge, no moderation in CPI

House prices continued to surge through April; expect no meaningful moderation in the CPI anytime soon House price increases continued to go through the roof as of April, as reported this morning in both the Case Shiller and FHFA house price indexes. The Case Shiller national index rose another 2.1% for the month and 20.4% […]

CPI Up .8% in Nov. on Higher Prices for Food, Fuel, Shelter, Vehicles, and Airfare; Inflation at a 39 Year High

Blogger and Commenter RJS, MarketWatch 666, November’s consumer prices, October’s trade deficit, wholesale sales, and JOLTS The consumer price index rose 0.8% in November, as higher prices for food, energy, new and used vehicles, airline fares, and toys were only slightly offset by lower prices for information technology devices, hospital services and for vehicle insurance….the Consumer […]

CPI

In March the CPI increased 0.5% bringing the year over year change to 2.7%. I will leave the analysis of the CPI to other and just discuss some of the implications. First, this caused my Fed policy index to turn positive for the first time since 2008. This index is a form of a Taylor […]

Green Shoots Data Defined

As a rule, the Shiller Index uses the CPI as reported for All Urban Consumers (CPIAUCNS on Fred(r)). But the Index is only updated Quarterly, so monthly data is estimated. Which produces a very interesting difference over August, not to mention September expectations: The annualised inflation rate between June and August is 0.39%, which just […]

Poverty Levels and Health care reform

By divorced one like Bush It seems to go without saying, that if there is reform, there will be some type of assistance for those who need it. Some numbers are bandied about as to the cutoff points. The Mass Connector has it’s formula up that you can play with by punching in your own […]