The latest consumer price index offered modest relief on paper, with overall inflation ticking down from last month's reading. Markets cheered. Main Street, not so much.
Food prices remain stubbornly elevated compared to pre-2021 levels, and energy costs continue to fluctuate in ways that punish commuters and small businesses. Economists can debate whether we have achieved a "soft landing." Shoppers know eggs still cost too much.
Conservative economists have long warned that massive federal spending and regulatory overreach would embed higher prices into the economy. Even as the Fed holds rates steady, the damage to purchasing power is real and lasting.
Until Washington stops treating inflation as a solved problem, working families will keep paying the price — literally.