Core Prices Rose 3.3% in September, Showing Inflation Isn’t Over
Core prices exclude food and energy, which are considered volatile items.
Oh, look. Inflation hasn’t gone anywhere.
Looks like everything went up, exceeding expectations. Good Lord. The Fed was stupid for the 50 bps cut last month.
The report also makes that supposedly amazing September jobs report more suspicious. Hhhhmmm…
The consumer price index rose 2.4% in September from last year.
Core prices, which does not include energy and food, went up 3.3% from a year ago. That’s higher than the 3.2% in August.
I’m also suspicious of these numbers. Something tells me it’s worse than the data shows.
Energy decreased 6.8%, but food increased 2.3%.
Here are the changes from August to September:
Here are the changes from September 2023 – September 2024:
Here are some other yearly big changes:
I’m looking forward to next month’s jobs report. You know there will be massive changes to the September jobs numbers.
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Comments
Inflation has definitely not ended. Wages are the next issue b/c workers will need roughly a 20% hike just to break even …then the cost of those wage increases get passed along to consumers… which causes workers to demand increased wages to offset those price increases; IOW we are at the beginning stages of a wage/price spiral.
It’s up to the Fed not to accommodate wage increases to match inflation. That is, real wages have to fall. That means removing dollars, and that means a higher interest rate target.
But that means wage earners and families will suffer financial pain, and no one today wants to accept that. Cuts rebound on the political party in power, and that’s pain the Democrats don’t want, with the election almost upon us.
If the standard of living has to be lower, it has to be lower. You can’t raise wages to fix it.
The Fed raising rates is the absolute best thing they could do to support the mid to long term economic health of the Nation. Raising rates makes borrowing more expensive for consumers, business and very importantly for Gov’t and Banks.
That means less available $ for corporate boondoggles, weak loan underwriting standards and it works to constrain Gov’t spending due to much higher borrowing costs and the crowding out effect.
The Fed is basically powerless at this point due to Fiscal policy of the Biden admin….unless they are willing to go full Volker and put rates up to 10-12%. Do that and we drive out the mal investment and kill off the zombie companies as well as the grifter crony capitalism. Plus we bring asset prices back to reality while also providing a positive real rate of return for savers without them having to play on Wall St where average folks are at a disadvantage.
Reduce rates too soon as I believe.the Fed is doing or refuse to raise them high enough to burst the asset bubble created since 2020 and we have either a wage price spiral or a massive long-term decline in standard of living. I would much rather have the short to medium term pain of bursting the asset bubble and a true recession than the alternatives.
It would be nice to have the job numbers split into government and non-government related jobs. Government hiring is a non-productive consumer.
It’s within the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) release. Of the 254K total jobs about 31K were govt jobs. Of the 31K govt jobs reported 16K were in local govt, 13K in State govt and the remainder were Federal. BLS has an easy to read 4 or.5 page PDF that breaks out the report by sector and gives updates on labor force participation rate and so on. A simple search for Sept jobs report 2024 is all it takes to find….they ain’t hiding their BS numbers, they’re shouting them out.
Are these numbers honestly suggesting that food prices rose only 2% in a YEAR? That wouldn’t even cover the shrinkflation, much less the actual rise in prices.
I don’t know who is supposed to be gaslighted with these fake number; certainly not the Americans who have to shop carefully and watch their pennies.
Maybe only the very well-to-do are oblivious enough to be fooled, but even they must notice the increase in insurance rates and mortgages. My auto insurance costs have nearly DOUBLED since 2019, with the same two cars and the same perfect driving record, and about 40% more in homeowners.
anytime the government takes over
the middle and lower class get smashed
just the way the welfare loving lefty wants it
If you want a primer on where we are and what needs to be done go look at what Reagan’s first couple of years were like as he & his wrung the Carter stagflation out of the economy, except today it’s 100x worse.
The federal government must be significantly trimmed in size and scope. Spending must be reined in -I’d say cut 50% of current spending – foreign aid ended, the welfare state trimmed back to those who are *truly* in need.
Otherwise, we will enter a period of hyperinflation that cannot or will not stop before millions are dead.
Choose carefully people. Harris will just grease the skids.
50% is gonna be way far a bridge to cross. In ’24 the federal budget was $6.8 Trillion with deficit spending of about $1.8 Trillion. Assuming we can cut spending down to just no more than revenue that leaves $5.0 Trillion to spend ….but on what?
Well we gonna spend about $1.2 Trillion to service the existing Deficit of $36+ Trillion. Leaves $3.8 Trillion. Take out the DoD spending of $1.0 Trillion and the VA budget of $350 million ish and you got about $1.95 Trillion to spend. Take out Federal pension payments of about $150 million.
That means we got about $1.8 Trillion left to spend on everything else…and all those things have powerful constituencies…which is why we.spend so much in the first place. Not to mention we haven’t yet accounted for healthcare spending which roughly accounts for the remainder of the $1.8 Trillion between Medicare, Medicaid Ocare and CHiP.
That accounts for a balanced budget with funding for healthcare and DoD plus the existing obligations of the Federal Govt in the form of debt, interest payments, pension obligations and the obligations of the VA.
We haven’t accounted for Congressional Salaries nor Agriculture, Education, Transportation, Labor….. The big looming issue is an SSA shortfall of about 25% coming in ’34. The retirees are damn sure gonna demand a fix…but as we see here the money isn’t there. We haven’t funded one US Embassy yet much less the State Dept and we are way in the red. So what’s gonna get cut to find the SSA shortfall? This is the essential problem, everyone wants ‘their’ program protected so that the cuts happen to someone/something else and not them.
Knew this when they did that rate cut in spite of inflation not being near target, but they had to do something about the economy to get the vice prostitute elected.
BIden-Harrisflation. Still going, after three and a half years of fiscal profligacy, illiteracy and malfeasance by the Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks.
My Organic one gallon milk at HEB in Texas went fro 5.98/ gallon to 6.28, and then 6.98/ gallon in one month
I’m Not buying it anymore, and I’d say that’s a wee bit more than 3.3 %
Closer to 16.7%