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.

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 …