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How Bad Is Inflation, Really?

It's bad. Don't cherry-pick your data and fool yourself into thinking the Fed can ease off now.

Josh Barro's avatar
Josh Barro
Oct 15, 2022
∙ Paid

Dear readers,

Pretty rough inflation report on Thursday, huh? Inflation exceeded expectations in September, with prices rising at a 4.6% annualized rate. You have likely seen this figure quoted as 8.2%, which is the percent change in prices from one year ago — the 8.2% figure mostly reflects inflation over the prior 11 months, while 4.6% better reflects …

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