You may have seen news reports pointing out that “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, has been “sticky,” suggesting that improvement on the inflation front will be only a temporary phenomenon.
This surge, by the way, was probably caused by the rise in remote work triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic rather than by any Biden administration policy.
If you really work at it, it’s still possible to be pessimistic about the inflation outlook, but it’s getting harder and harder.
Traditional measures of economic sentiment have become problematic in recent years: Ask people how the economy is doing, and their response is strongly affected both by partisanship and, I believe, by the narratives conveyed by the news media.
That is, what people say about the economy is, all too often, what they think they’re supposed to say.
Persons:
it’s