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John Authers

This Is a Broad Inflation Problem. Can It Be Controlled?

The latest numbers end all debate. Inflation has spread to the wider economy, and there’s only faint hope of making it leave soon.

How much longer before the prices melt? — How much longer before the prices melt?
Photographer: Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg

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January 13, 2022, 5:46 AM UTC

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No, the great inflation of 2021 wasn’t transitory. The final data for the year make that clear, with headline consumer inflation reaching 7% for the first time in four decades. There are very few notes of hope in the details, although I will try to find them for you. But there were almost no seriously unpleasant surprises. That helped explain the minimal reaction in both stock and bond markets.