by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org
This is not a “cold” report folks….
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 0.3 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.3 percent before seasonal adjustment.
The unchanged was caused by a decrease in gasoline, mostly, which everyone has seen in advance.
But the index in rents and owners equivalent rent were both up 0.4% which would annualize to 4.9%, or 2.5x the Fed’s “target” in these very large and unavoidable consumer expense. Further, medical care (another mandatory expense for most) was up even more, up 0.5% on the month and what’s worse is that prescription drugs were up 2.1% on the month which would annualize to more than 20%.