00:00It's Benzinga bringing Wall Street to Main Street
00:02Market frustration around the November Consumer Price Index centered on whether the data can be
00:07trusted after a federal government shutdown disrupted October data collection, according to
00:12Benzinga. The report showed annual CPI inflation slowed to 2.7% in November from 3% in September,
00:19supporting Trump's claim that inflation is easing. Economists said the figure was distorted because
00:24the Bureau of Labor Statistics carried forward September shelter prices, assuming zero inflation
00:29for October. Shelter accounts for roughly one-third of CPI and drove much of the cooling.
00:34Omer Sharif, the founder and president of Inflation Insights, said the BLS shelter methodology was
00:40inexcusable and only works if October inflation is assumed to be zero. Goldman Sachs said the method
00:46understated rent and owner's equivalent rent and could cause later rebounds. Markets rallied,
00:52but economists warned that the data-reflect methodology issues more than true inflation
00:56trends. For all things money, visit Benzinga.com.
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