The Most Important Number of the Week Is 6.2%

It was the shot (of inflation) heard round the world. The Labor Department said this week that its consumer price index surged 6.2% in October from a year earlier. The increase was the biggest since 1990, when oil prices soared in the months before the start of the first Gulf War. This was surely proof that not only had “Team Transitory” lost the inflation debate but that the U.S. was on the verge of becoming the next Weimar Republic! Umm, let’s slow things down a bit.

This is not about playing down the ill effects of high inflation. Consumer prices that are suddenly rising at a much faster rate disproportionately hurts those at the lower end of the income and wealth spectrum — a group that has only grown since the financial crisis more than a decade ago — as well as the elderly, who are likely living off their savings. Inflation can also be bad for businesses, especially if it eats into profit margins and causes consumers to pare back their spending because of sticker shock.