Inflation up at a rate of .6% this month

If that were to continue, it would be an annual rate of 7.2%. If that continues next month, look for the Fed to raise interest rates. The present spike may be tied to the increase in gasoline prices.

However, if the Fed did increase interest rates, that would be the first time since Bush stole the WH in 2001. There were about 12 interest rate cuts during that year alone. Bush has been blessed by the Fed with low interest rates but whomever wins in November may be inheriting higher interest rates and a more sluggish economy.

Perhaps Kerry should enlighten the voters of this possibility? Lower the expectations - just not as low as Bush and Cheney tried to lower them in 2000...

I believe the .6% was the URBAN CPI.

But I don't know if they reported on urban or rural CPI...I did not know there was such a thing??

up .2. That's excluding oil and food. Greenspan says it's ok. Just don't drive or eat and everything will be just dandy.

It covers the rise in grocery prices we food shoppoers have all seen, something that reflects increased fuel costs more quickly than other items in the economy which may have been produced months ago. Food is more perishable, and the costs hit us more quickly.

Expect the inflation to continue as rising energy costs affect all goods and services, no matter where they are produced.

Don't expect to see wages follow. After all, they still haven't recovered from the oil shocks of the 1970s and the double digit inflation that occurred then.

The truth is that the cost of this aggression and occupation WILL catch up with the economy. Despite the best hopes of the "supply-siders," the technological production gains of the 1990s are being rapidly used up as a means of papering over the crisis. The greatly increased federal AND private debt, coupled with a rapid expansion of federal spending (of the type now operative) will means bad things around the corner. Inflation--high inflation--is a real possibility. The sands are shifting beneath the world economy.

I've got a BAD feeling about that one. Should be released any day now.

-MR