Inflation Is Stuck at 3.4% — Will the Fed Hike This Week?

Two government reports came out last week — the PPI on Thursday and the CPI on Friday — and by Friday afternoon Wall Street had gone from "maybe" to "almost certainly" on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates this Wednesday. If you've ever heard "CPI" or "the Fed" on the news and nodded along without really knowing what it meant, this episode is your decoder ring. Linda breaks down what these two inflation thermometers actually measure (one is the menu price, the other is what the restaurant paid for ingredients), why gas prices are doing all the damage while rent is quietly cooling, and why the Fed's 2% target isn't zero. She goes line by line through what's actually up — fuel oil +52%, airline fares +23%, gas +27% — and what's quietly down (eggs –23%), and why a 3.4% "average" can feel like 15% if your life runs on gas, coffee, and flights. Then she goes back to the two times America has been here before — the oil-shock inflation of the 1970s that peaked at 14.8% and cost Paul Volcker a 20% interest rate to kill, and the 9.1% spike of 2022 that the Fed beat without a crash. Most importantly: what a quarter-point rate hike actually does to your savings account, your credit card, your mortgage, and your stocks — and why the market may barely blink at a decision everyone already expects. Listen early and ad-free for $5/mo on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/Investies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices