by David Stockman
LewRockwell.com
When it comes to Keynesian central banking, it might well be said that if you paint by the numbers you are stuck with the brush. That is to say, the Fed has turned its 2.00% target into an economic holy grail and therefore does not dare risk a rebound of the 40-year high inflationary pressures that remain directly in the rearview mirror.
Yes, the inflation gauges have cooled considerably since the 9% CPI (Consumer Price Index) peak of June 2022, but the Fed is not yet remotely out of the woods. In fact, when the inflation tide is viewed through the more stable and reliable lens of the 16% trimmed mean CPI, which peaked at a somewhat lower 7.2% level in 2022, the year-over-year (Y/Y) gain at 3.7% in January was still barely halfway back to the sacrosanct 2.00% goal.
Indeed, the annualized three-month rate of change in the trimmed mean CPI has rebounded to 4.0% already, while the annualized rate for January came in at a red hot 5.7%.