Consumer prices rose by 8.5% annually, according to March CPI numbers just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That inflation rate, the highest in 41 years, comes thanks to staggering food prices, which rose by a full percentage point in just the past month, and gas prices, up nearly 50% over the past year.
The Fed, like other Western central banks, claims to aim for a 2% benchmark for inflation. Despite inflation consistently rising over the past year to the highest point in four decades, the Fed waited until just last month to impose its first rate hike in four years, and even then used Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to choose a measly 25 basis points rate hike despite knowing full well that it was not enough to stanch soaring prices.
