Inflation was already too high, and then it went higher

A lot of people spent this morning trying to make Thursday’s inflation numbers sound fine.

A slightly hot report, but inflation excluding volatile items and shelter, which is a lagging indicator, still suggests that we're close to the Fed's target pic.twitter.com/JYZge5IVMX
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 11, 2024

Oh good grief. Too much. pic.twitter.com/XZCh5zQ7Ub
— Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreytucker) January 11, 2024

This is part of a yearlong public messaging campaign arguing that the President Joe Biden economy is perfectly perfect and that anyone who doesn’t like it is divorced from reality.