Inflation rose at a 4% annual rate in May, the lowest in 2 years

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Agree that they have to use some non-volatile indicator

to determine what it is absent to the wild swings of certain items.

But what I'm looking at is going back to when the inflation first spiked and then seeing how it has "stepped down" - literally in a stair-step fashion - since that point.

The NYT had such a graph (at least leading up to April) with the contributors and it looks like it might be "wage related" -



(from here - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/business/economy/what-causes-inflation.html)

This was Bloomberg's (current) through May 2023 and you can see the "stair step" effect -



(from here - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-13/us-inflation-slows-giving-room-for-fed-to-pause-rate-hikes)

This way, you have your general pre-inflation shock "baseline" and can see the front of the peak and the delta over a longer period of time. Looking within shorter periods, it doesn't seem to be doing anything but plateauing, whereas it really is dropping, but incrementally so since it is "slow".

What this would show is how different "things" (some being "solutions" ) "thrown at the problem" are impacting the core.

For example, you had a nasty, once-in-a-century pandemic that not only caused an impact on the workforce (with over 1 million fatalities), but also triggered (was a catalyst for) what was dubbed "The Great Resignation®" and an exodus of workers as baby boomers suddenly started retiring (who had been working far beyond expectations). That then caused a brief but major "employment shock", coupled with global supply chain issues (exposing a major weakness to manufacturing here), resulting in a short recession. Businesses lost money and people lost (or re-prioritized) their livelihoods and lives.

To combat that, money was released to keep businesses functioning and paychecks flowing (GDP), while interest rate changes (end of quantitative easing) were underway. This it outside of any "spite" price increases by the usual nefarious entities.

(I blame YOU guys for me doing this!! )