CNBC editor Rick Santelli on Wednesday reacted to the October Consumer Price Index, showing consumer prices rose at their fastest rate in decades.
Santelli pushed back against the notion that the inflation numbers were “temporary,” saying that “it doesn’t appear that way in the real world.” He warned that the “hot, hot, hot inflationary pressures” would be “very difficult for the fed to wash out of the system.”
“On CPI, holy cow. Hot, hot, hot!” Santelli exclaimed. “Even the headline is hot — up .9 of 1%. And of course, that really is much bigger than the .6 expected. Strip off the all-important food and energy up .6. That’s .2 hotter than expected. And we jump the broom on the handle here — year over year CPI 6.2%. That’s the highest since October of 1990 when it was at 6.3%, and it’s the sixth month in a row of 5% or higher. That began … in June, with a 5.0. So, these are, you can call it temporary, but it certainly doesn’t appear that way in the real world.”
He added, “Listen, there are certainly aspects post-pandemic that are going to reverse some of the hot, hot, hot inflationary pressures, but the residual inflationary pressures that remain are going to be something stubborn and very difficult for the fed to wash out of the system.”
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