Consumer Prices Still Show Few Signs of Tarifflation

Once again, the consumer price index (CPI) has failed to deliver the tariff-inflation spiral that economists and the media have promised. For years, we’ve been told tariffs are simply taxes on consumers, destined to push up the cost of everything from t-shirts to televisions. August’s report adds to the mounting evidence that this was always a scare story, not economic reality.

Headline inflation accelerated last month, with the all-items index climbing 0.4 percent after a 0.2 percent increase in July. The annual rate ticked up to 2.9 percent. But the sources of that pressure are clear: shelter, food, and energy . These are domestic categories with little to do with tariffs. What is conspicuously absent is any sign that duties on

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