Well, that should settle it. The June CPI came in 5.32% ahead of last year and up 3.00% per annum on a two-year stacked basis.
So much for the “base effect”, therefore, and the “averaging over time” ruse, as well. The five-year CAGR (from June 2016) was up 2.44% per annum and the six-year stack posted at 2.22% per year.
Houston, do we have inflation lift-off or what?
Technically speaking, we are talking about the CPI here, which like Taiwan, the money-printing branch of Washington doesn’t officially recognize. Then again, there is plenty of Washington-sanctioned commerce with the CPI—like upwards of 75 million social security and other entitlement beneficiaries who get their COLA benefits based on the CPI, not the Fed’s sawed-off inflation ruler called the PCE deflator.
YoY Change In CPI, June 2016-June 2021
Of course, there is a reason why entitlement beneficiaries get CPI-based COLAs, not PCE deflator-based cost of living adjustments. The politicians of both parties may be deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to the Fed’s mumbo jumbo about its money-printing madness, but they still generally can count.