Another Nail In The “Lowflation” Coffin

When the market was initially attempting to rally after the August CPI report this AM the weenies at CNBC helpfully posted a crawler announcing that the averages were up on “tame” inflation data.

Well, no. The best inflation trend measure—the 16% trimmed mean CPI—-was up 3.0% on a YoY basis in August. As it happens, that’s the second highest gain since January 1993. In modern times, the only higher surge was during the summer of 2008 when oil hit $150 per barrel and the US economy was fixing to plunge into the worst recession since the 1930s.