The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released their Consumer Price Index News Release for the month of July on August 11th, 2021. Inflation Summary: Annual Inflation 5.37% virtually identical to June's 5.39% CPI Index rose from 271.696 in June to 273.003 in July. Monthly Inflation for June was 0.93% and July was 0.48%. Next release September 14th Inflation for the 12 months ending in July was 5.37% identical to August 2008, July 2008 was the previous Peak at 5.60% Last month's 5.39% was the largest increase since August 2008's 5.37%. (Since the BLS rounds to 1 decimal place they reported last month, this month, and August 2008 as 5.4%). If inflation tops the 5.6% of July … [Read more...]
The Relationship Between Inflation and Interest Rates: Explained
"Macroeconomics" deals with the "big picture" of how things fit together in the economy as a whole, while "microeconomics" deals more with how it affects the individual. Here at InflationData, we generally look at the macro side and leave the economics of the individual to our sister sites like Your Family Finances. Today we are going to look at the macroeconomic implications of the link between inflation and Interest rates. ~Tim McMahon, editor The Macroeconomic Link Between Inflation and Interest Rates By George J. Newton Price Inflation is the rate at which the price of goods and services rises in the economy over a period of time. Monetary inflation is the increase in the money … [Read more...]
How Can Inflation Affect Businesses?
Inflation can affect business in strange ways. It can be good for business in small doses, but it can also be disastrous if it devolves into hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is often described as massively increasing prices over a very short period of time, for example, in America during the Civil War. But even if inflation doesn't get that bad, the later stages of ordinary inflation such as we saw in the 1980s can still be devastating to businesses. Here are four ways that businesses are affected by inflation or hyperinflation, and what that might mean for their customers and other services they might invest in. #1 It Can Increase Sales In the short run, as the money supply increases, … [Read more...]
June 2021: Highest Annual Inflation since 2008
Inflation Summary: Annual Inflation up sharply to 5.39% CPI Index rose from 269.195 in May to 271.696 in June. Monthly Inflation for March 0.71%, April 0.82%, May 0.80%, and June was 0.93% . Next release August 11th Inflation for the 12 months ending in June was 5.39% for the Largest Annual Increase since July 2008's 5.60% Last month's 4.99% was the largest increase since August 2008's 5.37% but at 5.39% June 2021 was actually slightly higher than that. (Although the BLS reported them both as 5.4%). If inflation tops the 5.6% of July 2008, we have to go all the way back to the 6.29% of October 1990 to find a higher peak. We have been predicting Annual Inflation would … [Read more...]
Oil vs. Gold- Why Compare Commodity Prices Against Each Other?
When we think of inflation we generally think of "Price Inflation" i.e. how much the price of a good or service has increased in dollars. However, price inflation is not "monolithic" that is, they don't all increase at exactly the same rate. Some prices will increase faster or more than others. So it is often useful to compare the price of one commodity to another to see the relative increases of each. Over the years we have compared a variety of different commodities including Gasoline vs. Oil and Oil vs. Bitcoin. We've even done a 3-way comparison of Gold vs. Dollar vs. Bitcoin. But since gold is historical money it is useful to use it as the standard yardstick. So we have updated … [Read more...]
How Does a Country “Export” its Inflation?
This question is interesting because most countries can’t just export their inflation because their currency is exclusive to their country. However, the U.S. is in the unique position of being the “reserve currency” of the world. In addition, several countries like Panama, Ecuador, and Zimbabwe, actually use the U.S. dollar as their currency and don’t even have their own currency at all. So the U.S. currency has a greater than normal influence on other country's economies. Exporting inflation is a Government's dream scenario. If they could print all the money they wanted and not suffer the consequences of their actions, it would be a dream come true for politicians. Printing money boosts … [Read more...]
May’s Annual Inflation Soars to ~5%
Inflation Summary: Annual Inflation up sharply to ~5% (actually 4.99%) CPI Index rose from 267.054 in April to 269.195 in May. Monthly Inflation for April was 0.82% and 0.80% in May. We have to go back to the Oil Peak of 2008 to see higher inflation. Next release July 13th Annual inflation for the 12 months ending in May was 4.99% Since February, we have been predicting Annual Inflation would shoot up in March and April due to negative numbers falling out of the annual calculation. Although May 2020 was not negative it was virtually zero so replacing it with a massive 0.80% monthly inflation caused the Annual inflation rate to soar once more. Since the BLS rounds … [Read more...]
5 Ways Inflation Affects the Accounting Industry
Market fluctuations are an everyday element of the accountant’s life. They come and go, subject to the economics, markets, and policies of countries and governments. As an economy enters a period of inflation and sees the cost of everyday products rise, the impact can be felt not only by the individual consumer but also on the business balance sheet. That’s when the accounting industry comes into its own, offering experience and insight into a company’s reporting. Here are 5 ways inflation affects the accounting industry, and how that impacts business. 1. Preparation for Change Becomes a Priority Throughout history, periods of inflation and conversely deflation, have made their presence … [Read more...]
The 3 Stages of Inflation
Inflation tends to arrive in 3 stages: Stage 1 The first stage is the price manufacturers pay for their raw materials. This can be tracked in a variety of ways including the Global Price of Agrigated Raw Materials published by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Interestingly, raw materials prices peaked in February 2011 at 187.2 and then fell steadily over the next 4 years. Prices stabilized for a few years before plummeting due to COVID. Since then raw materials prices have spiked sharply. But are still nowhere near 2011 levels. One of the reasons for the sharp spike in 2011 was serious flooding causing massive crop loss driving the price of four basic crops (wheat, rice, corn, and soybeans) … [Read more...]
April Inflation More than Double FED Target
Inflation Summary: Annual Inflation up sharply from 2.62% in March to 4.16% in April. CPI Index rose massively from 264.877 in March to 267.054 in April. Monthly Inflation for March was 0.71% and for April was 0.82%. We have to go back to the Oil Peak of 2008 to see higher inflation. Next release June 10th Annual inflation for the 12 months ending in April was 4.16% We have been predicting Annual Inflation would shoot up in March and April due to negative numbers falling out of the annual calculation. Since the BLS rounds their numbers to 1 decimal place they reported March as 2.6% and April as 4.2% taking inflation well above the FED's 2% target rate. Due to … [Read more...]
