Inflation rose an astounding 6.8% from last November to now, the largest annual increase since 1982 when Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker had to raise interest rates well into the double digits to combat the stagflation of the Carter era. CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla decided to use the dismal news to argue that, actually, our inflation rate is not “unique, special or anyone’s fault.”
https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1469311604470730752This is a wildly telling chart — but not in the way Quintanilla thinks.

Despite the Fed keeping U.S. interest rates near zero during the longest bull market in history, central bankers across the pond have proven even more dovish. Even so, in Europe, where the European Central Bank has maintained negative interest rates, nations such as France and Portugal have significantly lower inflation rates than us. (Note: Switzerland and Japan are outliers, as they’ve maintained negative or near-zero inflation and interest rates for over a decade now.)