Because of time zone challenges and my slothful ways, I don't normally post about new inflation figures until well after the rest of the world. My slothful ways aren't likely to change anytime soon, but today you all get the benefit of my being six time zones ahead of the BLS. So here are April's inflation figures bright and early in the morning.
It was all good news today: Inflation continued to slow down in April from its recent surge. On an annualized basis headline CPI inflation came in at 3.8%, down from 4.6% last month and 5.4% in February. Core CPI came down to 3.6%:
Groceries showed considerable deflation in April. The cost of food at home decreased 2.4% on an annualized basis.
On a conventional year-over-year basis, headline CPI was 3.4% and core CPI was 3.6%.
Well yeah but, uhhhhh, it's Biden's fault for not bringing it down sooner! Yeah!
Also, something something cherry-picked hazy-memory except-for-the-bad-parts Trump was better!
And the PPI? https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/ppi-report-wholesale-prices-rose-0point5percent-in-april-more-than-expected.html
The entire second paragraph at the link:
Notice that the March correction was larger than the actual estimate.
So a two-month average of 0.2%. But don’t let that stop us from running around with our hair on fire.
I don’t seek hair on fire.
I do seek showing both the front and back of the head.
On a conventional year-over-year basis, headline CPI was 3.4% and core CPI was 3.6%.
If we had any sense we'd be content to leave it in this range. Running the economy a bit hot seems....really not so bad for most people?
Yes!
But whats good for most people might not be the primary concern.
Coming in for a landing so soft that no one will notice that we've landed, Donald Trump is president, and takes credit for it. Also, Biden is old, so everything he did was bad.
And the Dow it up!!!
Just checked, P/E ratio for the Dow is over 35....
What???
Great for my 401, but really? Earnings better go up fast...
Profits are up, the markets are up, but the fat cats are OK with trashing democracy as long as they can get fatter: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/business/wall-street-donors-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE0.nJgp.R_o6CLdqhB0D&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
The headlines of your monthly updates are like a soap opera drama with constant changes in tone even as you present a steady long-term trend in your charts.