Inflation in America soars to 8%. Or is it more like 6%?
The Fed’s preferred price gauge is more benign but also more obscure
The federal reserve’s “preferred measure of inflation” is a phrase that often crops up in reporting on the American economy. It stands in for a verbose official name: the personal-consumption-expenditures price index (pcepi). Most discussion of inflation, however, focuses on its better-known and pithier relative, the consumer-price index (cpi).
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The price of accuracy”
Finance & economics July 2nd 2022
- The battle between Asia’s financial centres is heating up
- Can Europe keep the lights on this winter?
- Why inflation looks likely to stay above the pre-pandemic norm
- Inflation in America soars to 8%. Or is it more like 6%?
- The latest desperate attempt to prop up the Turkish lira
- The allure of betting on mergers
- What past market crashes have looked like
- The case for strong and silent central banks
From the July 2nd 2022 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance & economics
Will America’s crypto frenzy end in disaster?
Donald Trump’s team is about to bring digital finance into the mainstream
Do tariffs raise inflation?
Usually. But the bigger problem is that they harm economic growth and innovation
European governments struggle to stop rich people from fleeing
Exit taxes are popular, and counter-productive
Saba Capital wages war on underperforming British investment trusts
How many will end up in Boaz Weinstein’s sights?
Has Japan truly escaped low inflation?
Its central bankers are increasingly hopeful
How American bankers dodged the MAGA carnage
The masters of the universe have escaped an anti-globalist revolt