July 1, 2024

It was a combination of several factors that resulted in GW Bush's win. ALL were essential to producing that outcome

The following is from https://democraticunderground.com/100216793000#post32
which has several more posts from people trying unsuccessfully to argue that Nader's candidacy didn't affect the outcome (besides #32, #34, #35, #57, #73)

First, note that officially, Bush beat Gore by 537 votes in Florida. Nader got 97,488 votes in Florida. {1}

I have heard and read Nader make the dubious claim:

"In the year 2000, exit polls reported that 25% of my voters would have voted for Bush, 38% would have voted for Gore and the rest would not have voted at all." {2}

Well, that still means a net of 13%, or 12,665, more votes would have gone to Gore than to Bush {2}. That's overwhelming more than the 537 vote Bush victory margin.

This one has 21% would have voted for Bush, and 47% would have voted for Gore, for a 26% gap, or 25,347 more votes for Gore than Bush {3}

{1} http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0876793.html
{2} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader_presidential_campaign,_2000
{3} http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/ralph-nader-was-indispens_b_4235065.html
` http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nader-to-crash-dems-party/

Yes, yes, I know there were a number of reasons Bush officially beat Gore -- ALL of them were essential to Bush's victory -- IF EVEN ONE of these elements had been missing, Bush would have officially lost,

e.g. besides Nader’s candidacy, Kathleen Harris purging the voting lists of supposed felons, Gore running a poor campaign (in so so many ways), media dubbing Gore a serial liar (Love Story and all that), the butterfly ballots giving Gore's votes to Buchanan, the U.S. Supreme Court stopping the recount -- yada.

But it doesn't wipe out the fact that even with all that, Gore would have won if not for Nader drawing thousands more votes away from Gore than from Bush.

As for the Supreme Court -- if the vote count on election night and the days and weeks after the election had put Gore ahead by 12,000 or 25,000 votes instead of down by 500 or 600, it would unlikely have gone to the Supreme Court; and even less likely that they would have declared the 12,000 or 25,000 vote count loser to be the winner of Florida's electoral votes.

And Nader broke his pledge (made when getting petition signatures to get on the ballot in several states) to not campaign in swing states, and instead did his utmost to defeat Gore. And yet Michael Moore supported him all the way.

And Nader trashing the Democrats as being as bad as the Republicans no doubt also affected some voters to not vote for a president or to stay home - things not captured in the election statistics.

It was a combination. I don't doubt that there were many factors larger than Nader being on the ballot that caused the official Bush win and Gore loss, including, many times over, the voter purges. But had any element mentioned in the above post been absent, Gore would have been inaugurated.

July 1, 2024

A small little change in average temperatures dramatically increases the number of days with extreme temperatures

The graph illustrates that a small shift to the right in the average shifts the whole bell curve to the right, and, in this illustration makes hot weather (orange) much more common and extreme hot weather (red) from almost zero probability to considerable probability

if, for example, the average daily high in July in some locale is 85 degrees with a 6 degree standard deviation, and normally distributed: [1]

then the number of days when the high is 103 or above (3 standard deviations above the mean) is 0.1350% of July days.

In Excel, the formula for finding the area under the normal distribution from 103 to infinity with an average of 85 and standard deviation of 6 is:
=1-NORM.DIST(103,85,6,TRUE)
which gives an answer of 0.001350 which is 0.1350% [2]

OK, so no biggie. So what?

Now lets say that due to climate change so far, the average July daily high temperature has shifted by just 2% to the right, from 85 to 86.7

then the number of days when the high is 103 or above changes to 0.3297% of July days.

That's a 2.44 fold increase (144% increase) in the number of 103+ degree days for just a 2% increase in the average.

Shift the average 4% to the right, from 85 to 88.434, and you get 0.7598% of July days, a 5.63 fold increase (463% increase) in the number of 103+ degree days.

=====================================

Repeating the above exercise, but with a less extreme example, finding the number of days with a high of 97 or above (2 standard deviations above the mean)

with an average July daily high of 85 degrees, the number of July days when the high is 97 degrees or above is 2.275% of July days.

Now lets say that due to climate change so far, the average July daily high temperature has shifted by just 2% to the right, from 85 to 86.7 degrees

then the number of July days when the high is 97 or above changes to 4.302% of July days.

That's a 1.89 fold increase (89% increase) in the number of 97+ degree days for just a 2% increase in the average.

Shift the average 4% to the right, from 85 to 88.434, and you get 7.669% of July days, a 3.37 fold increase (237% increase) in the number of 97+ degree days.

=====================================

The same principle applies to other climate change events, e.g. the severity of storms or what have you -- a small shift in the average results in a huge increase in the number of extreme events.


======= FOOTNOTES ===========

[1] Temperatures are normally distributed according to a Google search.

Picking New York City for example (with an 84 degree average daily high in July)
https://weatherspark.com/m/23912/7/Average-Weather-in-July-in-New-York-City-New-York-United-States

The 10 and 90 percentile bands are shown on the graph, and they are (reading from the graph and using the peak July date) are 77 to 92, which is a band width of 15.

That occurs when X is -1.281552 to +1.281552 standard deviations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation
See the big table about 2/3 of the way down the article that has this row:
1.281552sigma   80%   20%

Meaning that between minus and plus 1.281552sigma, 80% are within that confidence interval and 20% are outside of it.
(The greek symbol sigma is the symbol for standard deviation. DU replaces it with a "?" so I show "sigma" in the above)

So for a 10 to 90 bandwidth of 15, the standard deviation is 5.85228
(15/2 = 7.5,   7.5/1.281552 = 5.85228)

So, rounding, I used 6 as my standard deviation in the above example.

[2] The TRUE means its the cumulative normal distribution as opposed to the probability density function
The area under the normal distribution curve from minus infinity to 103 (and having an average of 85 and standard deviation of 6) is NORM.DIST(103,85,6,TRUE)
The area from 103 to infinity is
1-NORM.DIST(103,85,6,TRUE)

June 30, 2024

SIM card hell - New SIM card required by Consumer Cellular, but it reduced battery life down by 2/3

They are increasing the pressure on me to install the new SIM card by increasing the legacy network charge from $5 to $10/month if I don't...

My phone is a Galaxy S10e (Android), purchased new in late 2019.

Last August, Consumer Cellular (CC) said my SIM card was obsolete and I promptly ordered a new one. But I couldn't figure out how to install it (and yes I've put in SIM cards before in other phones without problems).

To make the long story short, I finally, after searching for videos, found a way to install it - see [1] below. But my phone app and text messaging did not work at all, and the battery life was cut short from 3 to 4 days to 1.3 days if not used at all, to something much less if I used it (for web browsing or listening to TuneIn -- like for my typical trip away from home for a few hours it wouldn't have held up even if fully charged at the start). Yes, I have a battery pack but using it would require considerable recharge time and maybe 2 recharges - not practical.

I called CC again and we didn't come up with a solution. So I replaced the new SIM card with the old one and everything was fine, including the battery life which was back to the 3-4 days.

But they've been bombarding me with texts, emails, and phone calls for months about how they were going to charge me a $5/month legacy network surcharge until I replaced my SIM, and that eventually my phone might stop working. (I've been paying the extra $5/month for about 3 months so far). Today they said they would start charging $10/month extra.

One thing when I had the new SIM card in for awhile -- I think the problem on the phone app and text message app not working is that I may NOT have successfully activated it after installation (my notes are confusing about that). But to check this out and try again, I hesitate to try again because I fear once I successfully activate it, I will end up with the too-short battery life, and I won't be able to go back to the old SIM card. So I've just swallowed the $5/month surcharge and kept the old card in. But an extra $10/month is starting to get pricey, and they may just keep increasing it, and like they say, the phone eventually might not work at all.

FINALLY, THE QUESTION: Has anyone had similar difficulties with new SIM cards causing a huge reduction in battery life? Am I right to think that if I install and activate the new SIM card, there's likely no way in hell of being able to use the old SIM card again?

Thanks much in advance

=====================================================
[1] (Not essential details, no need to read) The instructions sent with the SIM card were horrible and a couple of calls to Consumer Cellular were not helpful. And I broke the little key thing that one pokes in the hole, and they wouldn't send me a new one. Though she said a partly straightened out paper clip would work. I finally found a video that was just exactly like my phone that showed exactly where to poke (the CC written instructions didn't even have that info), but I bent to uselessness a couple of paperclips. Still no dice.
      I finally found a video about dealing with phones whose SIM card drawer didn't pop out (partially) like it should when the hole is poked: Use a LOT of pressure to poke as some old phones' SIM drawers sometimes get stuck. But I had already used enough pressure to bend a couple of paperclips. And other instructions I had encountered warned against applying too much pressure.
      But anyhow, I unbent another paperclip, held the last 3/8-1/4" or so of it with my needle-nose pliars, under the theory that only the most extreme force would cause 1/4" of paperclip to bend. It worked -- I was able to push it in the hole with enough force to pop open the SIM tray.
      I put the new SIM card in (instructions were horrible and it was some kind of thingy where actually it was 3 SIM cards in one, and one had to figure out which one, and its orientation, is the right fit for the phone. It was the smallest tiniest chip of the three. And the online instructions to activate it went all over the place link after link after link, and eventually I think I activated it, but am not at all sure. As I say in the above, the new SIM card didn't work.

June 28, 2024

Graphs, CPI, PPI, and today's PCE, Regular and Core

As always, I've been seeing some mischaracterizations of the recent inflation situation in the media, so here is a summary table followed by the graphs.

I annualize them all to be easy to compare to each other, and to compare to the FED's 2% goal. I use the actual index values rather than the one-digit changes that are commonly reported in the media. Links to the data are with the graphs.

ALL the numbers are the seasonally adjusted ones

The "1 month" number is the change from April to May expressed as an annualized number.

The "3 month" number is the growth over the last 3 months (and then annualized). It is calculated based on the change in the index number between the latest one and the one 3 months previous. e.g. if the latest index value is 304 and the one 3 months previous is 300, then the 3 month increase is 1.333333%
. . . (304/300 = 1.01333333 => [subtract 1 and multiply by 100%] => 1.333333%)
Annualized, it is 5.4%
. . . (1.01333333^4 = 1.0544095 => [subtract 1 and multiply by 100%] => 5.44095% => 5.4%).
. . . Most people just multiply the 3 month increase by 4 to annualize it: 1.333333%*4 = 5.333333% => 5.3% which isn''t technically correct (it leaves out compounding) but it is close for small percentage changes.

"Regular" is the "headline" number that has "everything"

"Core" is the regular with food and energy removed (The Fed prefers this as a basis for projecting FUTURE inflation)

Finally, the main summary table
All are seasonally adjusted and ANNUALIZED
PCE-Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (Fed's favorite inflation measure)
CPI-Consumer Price Index (retail)
PPI-Producer Price Index (Wholesale prices)
Links to the data are with the graphs below




Average real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) hourly earnings are up over the past 2 years and are above the pre-pandemic level:
. . . # Real average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
. . . # Real average hourly earnings of private sector workers: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000013

And now the graphs, in the following order:

* Core PCE and Regular PCE (Core PCE is the Fed's favorite for projecting FUTURE inflation)

* Core CPI and Regular CPI

* Wholesale inflation - Core PPI and Regular PPI

CORE PCE through MAY that came out 6/28/24
CORE PCE (seasonally adjusted): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPILFE
BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"

This is the one that the Fed weighs most heavily. The Fed weigh the PCE more heavily than the CPI. And in both cases, they weigh the CORE measures higher than the regular headline measures for projecting FUTURE inflation



Regular PCE through MAY that came out 6/28/24
Regular PCE (seasonally adjusted): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPI
BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"



CORE CPI through May that came out 6/12/24
CORE CPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E
BLS CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm



The Regular aka Headline CPI through May that came out 6/12/24
Regular CPI (seasonally adjusted) https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
BLS CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm



WHOLESALE INFLATION (PPI - the Producer Price Index)

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm

As for which core PPI measure, since the BLS highlights the one below in its reporting (as opposed to the one without food and energy), then I guess I should do likewise.

CORE PPI (excluding food, energy, trade services) through May that came out 6/13/24:
CORE PPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPSFD49116



===========================================================

Regular PPI through May that came out 6/13/24 ( includes "everything" ):
Regular PPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPSFD4

June 13, 2024

I found the BLS data series so one can look at the numbers and graphs in many formats and ranges

Edited to add: OP's article, viewable archive.is version: https://archive.is/Hs8r1   End Edit

CPI-U All Items less food, energy, and shelter, seaonally adjusted:
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L12E

To see more than the index values, Click on "More Formatting Options" on the upper right

On the page that appears, click on some of these checkboxes as one pleases (no harm checking on them all, it all ends up in one page, one after the other)
1-Month Percent Change
2-Month Percent Change
3-Month Percent Change
6-Month Percent Change
12-Month Percent Change

Set the "Specify Year Range" from 2023 to 2024 to match the OP's graphs

From reading many articles, I do know that the Fed follows this (core ex shelter) with a lot of interest (and/or perhaps a similarly named core ex-shelter series), so they aren't a bunch of ring-ring-ring-a-ding-dongs who aren't aware that rents lag in the CPI and PCE.

That said, I've been reading since September of 2022, yes, 1 3/4 years ago, -- and many times since -- that new leases are averaging less than the previous leases, and that this will put downward pressure on the CPI and especially the core CPI over the next several months (meaning the next several months since the article was written, many months or more than a year ago).

But it hasn't happened yet. Shelter in the last 7 months has been coming in at a nearly steady 0.4% increase per month, month after month, excepting an excursion to 0.6% in January. The latest year-over-year number is 5.4%. Shelter is one of those "factor X's" that I keep in mind that may finally show up as a CPI-reducing item, but it hasn't yet for whatever reason.

Shelter: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SAH1

CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

Thanks much for the graphs and the topic.

June 13, 2024

All 3 inflation graphs (PCE, CPI, PPI) up-to-date as of 6/13/24

I've been seeing some mischaracterizations of the recent inflation situation in the media, so here is a summary table followed by the graphs.

I annualize them all to be easy to compare to each other, and to compare to the FED's 2% goal. I use the actual index values rather than the one-digit changes that are commonly reported in the media. Links to the data are with the graphs.

ALL the numbers are the seasonally adjusted ones

The "1 month" number is the change from April to May expressed as an annualized number. (Exception: The PCE is from March to April -- they don't update their number for May until late in June)

The "3 month" number is the growth over the last 3 months (and then annualized). It is calculated based on the change in the index number between the latest one and the one 3 months previous. e.g. if the latest index value is 304 and the one 3 months previous is 300, then the 3 month increase is 1.333333%
. . . (304/300 = 1.01333333 => [subtract 1 and multiply by 100%] => 1.333333%)
Annualized, it is 5.4%
. . . (1.01333333^4 = 1.0544095 => [subtract 1 and multiply by 100%] => 5.44095% => 5.4%).
. . . Most people just multiply the 3 month increase by 4 to annualize it: 1.333333%*4 = 5.333333% => 5.3% which isn''t technically correct (it leaves out compounding) but it is close for small percentage changes.

"Regular" is the "headline" number that has "everything"

"Core" is the regular with food and energy removed (The Fed prefers this as a basis for projecting FUTURE inflation)

Finally, the main summary table
All are seasonally adjusted and annualized
PCE-Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (Fed's favorite inflation measure)
CPI-Consumer Price Index (retail)
PPI-Producer Price Index (Wholesale prices)
Links to the data are with the graphs below




Average real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) hourly earnings are up over the past 2 years and are above the pre-pandemic level:
. . . # Real average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
. . . # Real average hourly earnings of private sector workers: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000013

And now the graphs, in the following order:

* Core PCE and Regular PCE (Core PCE is the Fed's favorite for projecting FUTURE inflation)

* Core CPI and Regular CPI

* Wholesale inflation - Core PPI and Regular PPI

CORE PCE through *APRIL* that came out 5/31/24
CORE PCE (seasonally adjusted): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPILFE
BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"

This is the one that the Fed weighs most heavily. The Fed weigh the PCE more heavily than the CPI. And in both cases, they weigh the CORE measures higher than the regular headline measures for projecting FUTURE inflation



Regular PCE through *APRIL* that came out 5/31/24
Regular PCE (seasonally adjusted): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPI
BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"




CORE CPI through May that came out 6/12/24
CORE CPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E
BLS CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm



The Regular aka Headline CPI through May that came out 6/12/24
Regular CPI (seasonally adjusted) https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
BLS CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm



WHOLESALE INFLATION (PPI - the Producer Price Index)

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm

As for which core PPI measure, since the BLS highlights the one below in its reporting (as opposed to the one without food and energy), then I guess I should do likewise.

CORE PPI (excluding food, energy, trade services) through May that came out 6/13/24:
CORE PPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPSFD49116



===========================================================

Regular PPI through May that came out 6/13/24 ( includes "everything" ):
Regular PPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPSFD4

June 2, 2024

Looking for a voice recorder with reasonably loud playback

I've searched hard several times for a good voice recorder for recording things I don't want to forget, which is a lot of things and I take it with me everywhere. I've become totally reliant on them over the years.

What I'm having trouble finding is one that has loud enough playback is the main thing. I don't want to plug in earbuds to listen to playback every time or hold it up to my ear because I'm usually typing/transcribing during playback. Sometimes I put it on a stack of 2 tall cans (the 2 tall cans are taped together) to raise it to near the level of my ears while typing. But then the screen and buttons are too close.

And I'm worried about if, even with earbuds, will I be able to hear e.g. a lecture. I've not been too happy with 2 of my 3 recorders when I record a TV across the room.

I'm not at all hard of hearing that I know of.

Over the years I've had 3 recorders:

Olympus VN 7200 (my only working recorder now) -
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005756GYM
GOOD:

* Easy to use.
* Loud playback ( ) with volume control to get it just right,
* Regular (AAA) batteries.

CONs:

* They don't make them anymore. $130 and up for new and only from 3rd party vendors at Amazon which I have trust issues with after getting screwed (later: looks like that's something I'm going to have to get over with - seems like they're all that way now). I don't trust used -- on all recorders buttons eventually wear out, and no way of knowing how far along in their lifecycle they are. Likewise rechargeable batteries wear down on recorders with rechargeable batteries.
* [edited to add] It has behaved erratically several times in the past with buttons sometimes being hard to press or not pressable at all. I've WD-40'd many times with varying success. Magically, it's been working just fine for the past few months, but I am not counting on that to continue.

Olympus WS-852 (dead: buttons no longer work) -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014658DS0
GOOD:

* Easy to use.
* Regular (AAA) batteries.

CON: Playback is too low volume. A deal killer. Also I think buttons became problematical earlier than what I've experienced with my other 2 recorders

SONY ICD-UX570 (it drowned a month ago when spilled water on it)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005756GYM
GOOD:

* A rocket scientist's dream (which I'm not). I'm sure it can do anything and everything if one spends hours learning and remembering the complicated sequence of non-intuitive instructions
* Small size (yet buttons and screen are almost the same size as the other two recorders)

UMMM:

* irreplaceable rechargeable batteries that don't last very long between charges. But I'm sure it saves money over AAA batteries. Unless battery life (too many recharges) is the thing that eventually kills its usefulness first

CONS:

* Hard as hell to learn to use (but now that I figured it out, not a problem for me anymore), but anyone interested should be forewarned. I am amazed how complex they made it.
* Expensive $79
* Playback volume too low. A little better than the WS-852's volume but not much.

I've read countless Amazon reviews over the years and its hard to tell from the reviews when they indicate playback volume issues, how bad it is. Less than ideal or really sucks?

I'm curious too about whether others use these things or not.

Cellphones also have voice recorders built in or in apps, but I really don't want to be holding my phone as often as I use these recorders. And the recorders are quite a bit smaller and lighter than my phone. Aside from that, the apps are overly inferior in my very limited experience.

Thanks in advance for any ideas

May 31, 2024

PCE Inflation Graphs at last

BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"
. . . The April report released May 31: https://www.bea.gov/index.php/news/2024/personal-income-and-outlays-april-2024

Source of index values to produce the graphs:
PCE: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPI
CORE PCE: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPILFE

EDITED TO ADD the updated graphs 859 AM ET

PCE (3 month and month-by-month) Thru April'24, 5/31/24:


CORE PCE (3 month and month-by-month) Thru April'24, 5/31/24:


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-inflation-reading-reinforces-feds-higher-for-longer-stance-144840988.html

(emphasis added)

That was a month and a half ago. With the horribly high January dropping out of the 3-month window and today's moderate April-over-March readings of PCE: +0.257% (3.12% annualized), and CORE PCE:+0.249% (3.03% annualized), there's a nice downturn in all of the graphs

Still, the latest 3 month averages, annualized are PCE: 3.80% and CORE PCE: 3.46%. But it's headed in the right direction.

May 24, 2024

This graphical perspective of the CPI explains why the Fed sees inflation as sticky and "elevated" lately

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-inflation-reading-reinforces-feds-higher-for-longer-stance-144840988.html
(emphasis added)

That was before the last CPI report (May 15) which showed a leveling off of the rolling 3 month average CPI and a slight downturn of the Core CPI. That's a bit of progress. (The new PCE report comes out next Friday, May 31).

All the graphs shown on this page and all links are to seasonally adjusted numbers.

CPI and Core CPI from January 2023 thru April 2024, 3 month rolling average from BLS webpages
The regular CPI followed by the Core CPI
The regular CPI https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
The core CPI is at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

The regular CPI is this one right below --vvv

The Core CPI is this one right above --^^^

From this 16 months perspective, the regular CPI (the upper graph of the two graphs) looks like it is basically going sideways with a lot of zigging and zagging, ending with a 3 month uptick and a one month plateauing.

While the core CPI (the lower graph) appears on a definite upward trajectory over the 7 months beginning in August, and a little easing in the last month. .
(As always, the Fed prefers the core measures for projecting FUTURE inflation).

I did the regular CPI and the core CPI in separate windows and then placed the windows one above the other. To erase the top of my browser that showed between the two windows, I used the Windows Snip tool's Pen tool, right clicking on that and choosing the color white and making the size somewhat larger -- and then applying the resulting thick white pen as a sort-of-an-eraser. It's crude with too much white space between the two graphs, but that's the state of my technology currently.

How to get the 3-month rolling average and other views

To see the month-by-month, and rolling averages of 2 months, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, one can visit the BLS data & graph page for the CPI at https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0 . Or for the Core CPI at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

Then click "More Formatting Options" on the upper right and check whatever checkboxes you want (no harm in checking them all, they show up all on the same page one after the other):

1-month percent change, 2-month percent change, 3-month percent change, 6-month percent change, and 12-month percent change

You might want to change the years to something narrower than the default 2014 to 2024 to zoom in on the years of most interest. Or broaden it or whatever. For the above graphs, I chose 2023 to present.

========================================================================

All the latest inflation graphs (CPI, PCE, PPI wholesale) with links are at https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143240761#post3

The latest 3 month and one month numbers from the three inflation reports
In the below table, all are seasonally adjusted and annualized
(the above 3-month graphs are NOT annualized. To approximately annualize those, multiply the left scale by 4)
PCE-Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (Fed's favorite inflation measure)
CPI-Consumer Price Index (retail)
PPI-Producer Price Index (Wholesale prices)



EDITED TO ADD Monday 5/27 640 AM ET
Forecast for the PCE and Core PCE to be released this Friday May 31
This is the Fed's favorite inflation indicator, particularly the CORE PCE for forecasting FUTURE INFLATION

With April's numbers being as forecast by this group of economists:
https://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendar -- "The median forecasts in this calendar come from surveys of economists conducted by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal"



The PCE and particularly the Core PCE looks quite a bit better than their CPI counterparts.

Note in comparing the CPI and PCE graphs is that there is a small difference in time scale -- 16 months for the CPI and 13 months for the PCE -- and that the CPI graph is not annualized while the PCE graph is. They are produced by different groups - the CPI by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the PCE by the Commerce Department. I can't find a rolling 3 month for the PCE, so these are calculated from the index values

FRED: PCE: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPI
FRED: CORE PCE: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPILFE

May 20, 2024

For perspective: month-by-month inflation since January 2021

Graph from an earlier BumRushDaShow posting:


The following rolling 3 month average for the last 13 months, and the corresponding month-by-month (they come together in the same Imgur or I would have left off the month-by-month as repetitious of the above). I see the 3-month as a way of smoothing out the month to month jumpiness, but it too has its big up and downs over short time frames. And in this particular case it is not particularly helpful, but generally it helps a lot in most of the inflation graphs IMHO.



To see the month-by-month, and rolling averages of 2 months, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, one can visit the BLS data & graph page for the CPI at https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0

Then click "More Formatting Options" on the upper right and check whatever checkboxes you want (no harm in checking them all, they show up all on the same page one after the other):

1-month percent change, 2-month percent change, 3-month percent change, 6-month percent change, and 12-month percent change

You might want to change the years to something narrower than the default 2014 to 2024 to zoom in on the years of most interest. Or broaden it or whatever.

The CPI tables and graphs shown on the above CUSR0000SA0 link are different for the 1-month and 3-month percent changes than for the second set of graphs shown above because the latter are annualized numbers (for easy comparability to the Fed's 2% goal and to each other), whereas the CUSR0000SA0, and the top graph of this posting, are not annualized. But the shape will be the same for the 13-month time period covered by the 2nd set of graphs.

The core CPI is at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

All the graphs shown on this page and all links are to seasonally adjusted numbers.

All the latest inflation graphs (CPI, PCE, PPI wholesale) with links are at https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143240761#post3

The Fed's favorite inflation series, the PCE, particularly the core PCE (for projecting FUTURE inflation) are coming out Friday May 31.

Edited to Add 5/23 9:00pm ET
CPI and Core CPI from January 2023 thru April 2024, 3 month moving average from BLS webpages
The regular CPI followed by the Core CPI
The regular CPI https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
The core CPI is at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

See above instructions about how to get this view - Click on "More Formatting Options" and then on the page that appears, check the 3 month checkbox and change the date range from 2023 to present

The regular CPI is this one right below --vvv

The Core CPI is this one right above --^^^

From this 16 months perspective, the regular CPI (the upper graph of the two graphs) looks like it is basically going sideways with a lot of zigging and zagging, ending with a 3 month uptick and one month plateauing.

While the core CPI (the lower graph) appears on a definite upward trajectory over the 7 months beginning in August, and a little easing in the last month. .
(As always, the Fed prefers the core measures for projecting FUTURE inflation).

I did the regular CPI and the core CPI in separate windows and then placed the windows one above the other. I don't know how to do any better. I tried the Erase tool in both Windows Snip and in Imgur to erase the top part of my browser that was shown in between the 2 graphs.

I had no luck with Imgur's erase tool. But with the Windows Snip tool I finally figured out to use the Pen tool, right click on that and choose the color white and make the size somewhat larger -- and then apply the resulting thick white pen as a sort-of-an-eraser.