Inflation Numbers Today

They are generally as expected, with year over year inflation edged up slightly. pretty much in line with expectations. 

The perception is that the Federal Reserve will cut rates at its next meeting anyway.

Fresh inflation data released on Wednesday made clear that the Federal Reserve’s fight against rapid price increases was not over. Still, the details of the report probably gave central bank officials enough confidence to cut interest rates at their meeting next week.

The Consumer Price Index climbed 2.7 percent in the year through November, just slightly faster than the 2.6 percent reading in October. After volatile food and fuel costs were stripped out for a better sense of the underlying inflation trend, “core” inflation held steady at 3.3 percent.

But drilling into the details of the report, a long-awaited slowdown in housing cost inflation materialized last month. Because rental costs make up such a big chunk of overall inflation, that could pave the way for cooler inflation readings going forward.

As one can ascertain from the graph, shelter is a very big part of the problem, and it has been made immeasurably worse by the machinations of private equity and hedge fund speculation.

Greedflation is a thing, and it needs strong regulation to fix it, which will not be happening over the next 4 years.