All indicators continue to signal ongoing economic health.
Prices at the wholesale level edged up modestly in August, providing further evidence that inflation pressures are easing.
That's good news all around. Here the details.
This is a pretty upbeat article.
The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices edged up 0.1 percent last month as gasoline prices fell, helping to offset a jump in food costs.
So it costs less to fill your tank and more to fill your cupboards.
Outside of energy and food, core inflation was even better behaved, falling by 0.4 percent after a 0.3 percent decline in July. It marked the first back-to-back declines in core inflation in more than three years.
That's got to make a lot of people feel good.
The good news contained in the department’s Producer Price Index followed a report last week that inflation at the consumer level also moderated in August, rising by just 0.2 percent.
It just keeps on coming.
Both months reflected a slowdown in energy prices, which rose by just 0.3 percent at the wholesale level in August after a huge 1.3 percent jump in July. Gasoline prices actually fell at the wholesale level last month, dropping 2.2 percent, the biggest decline in seven months.
The September numbers should really reflect the plummeting fuel price.
Falling gasoline prices will leave consumers with more money to spend on other items. This should provide fuel to keep the economy moving ahead, easing worries that the recent slowdown in consumer spending could worsen into an outright recession.
Even after all this seemingly good news, I'm still dissapointed to see the "R" word used in this story. It's the media. Bad news sells.
I hate that.
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