, Columnist
Inflation Worrywarts Just Need to Calm Down
The Fed isn't rattled by a little rise in jobs and wages. That's what it's been seeking for years.
Now that's what you call inflation.
Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Getty ImagesThe Federal Reserve isn't alarmed about inflation. Should everybody else be worried?
No, and a big reason is that many traders and investors who are now demanding inflation-fighting belt-tightening by the Fed seem to have lost perspective on the subject. For all the psychodrama unleashed by the hiring and wage gains documented in the Feb. 2 U.S. employment report — the one cited as the fuse that ignited this month's market tumult — not much has really changed about the trajectory of the economy.