Not sure what all the fuss is about. I can’t say I consider a range of 1.14% to 2.63% more than marginally inflationary?
Seems like a whole lot of nuthin’ to me.
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I can’t speak for others, but to me, the “fuss” on this topic is that we’ve gone from rampant deflation hysteria six months ago to firmly positive inflation now. The YOY numbers you cited tend to smooth over recent rates of change which can be seen in the CPI or in the more up to date inflation measure coming from MIT (fyi, the timeline on the MIT chart is created automatically so I picked the same timeline for the cpi chart):
Additionally, there has been notably faster inflation in food and energy prices, though some of that has not yet leaked through to the consumer level. A major premise of “inflationists” (at least of mine) has been that inflation will not likely be across the board but will probably be more apparent in items that are in shorter supply, that people need, and that are sought after globally. So a rise in food and energy prices alongside a flatter core CPI may seem like a more significant development to us than to you.
So that’s what the fuss is about, to the extent there is a fuss. That said I agree I certainly that current levels of inflation are not super problematic, at least not in this country. I think the idea here is to try to understand what current trends imply for the future.
Personally, I don’t believe this is the “big one”… I think it’s coming, but not until after our foreign creditors panic.
