Inflation Is Always and Everywhere Increasing, Even When It’s Not

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The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates today:

The tame inflation and weak retail-sales data released Wednesday won’t deter the Federal Reserve from raising short-term interest rates later in the day but do raise doubts about another rate hike in September….Vince Reinhart, chief economist at Standish Mellon AsseInft Management, said Fed officials repeated the same message over and over: the weak first-quarter spending was transitory, the economy is at full employment and inflation is headed toward the goal of 2%.

Really? Inflation is “headed toward” the goal of 2 percent? If that’s the case, it’s sure doing it in a roundabout way. I’m no economist, but it sure looks to me like every conceivable measure of inflation has been dropping like a stone all year.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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