I know, I know… we don’t need an official report to tell us this, but here it is anyway. The overall July Consumer Price Index (CPI) came out this morning and the reported figure was a hefty 0.8%. The CPI is the economic measure of consumer inflation and of how average prices increase over time. Year over year <July 2007-July 2008> consumer prices have gone up 5.6% (ouch), which also signifies the biggest year-over-year increase since January 1991.
Normally, an inflation reading of this caliber would really affect the bond market for the worst, which would cause interest rates to increase, but the recent decline in Oil prices has tamed it, so interest rates were not affected too badly.
