Inflation bumped modestly higher in the August reading of CPI to a rate of change of 3.7%, up from 3.3%.1 This is well off the high of 8.9% in June of 2022, but also well above the Fed’s 2% inflation target. Core inflation has been a bit stickier at 4.4%, but also well off the high of 6.6% from last September. Core CPI has been stickier in large part because services inflation hasn’t come down while headline CPI has dropped sharply in response to much lower goods inflation. A big chunk of that is commodity prices which are down 25% year over year. Interestingly, if you exclude shelter the rate of inflation is just ... (full story)