Wall Street rang the bell on Wednesday because inflation came in a hair lower than last month, and your grocery bill still costs 3.4% more than it did a year ago — which tells you everything about who this system is built to serve.
The Consumer Price Index for July showed inflation cooling to a 3.4% annual rate, down from June's 3.5% increase and matching what economists expected, according to Yahoo Finance. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.1% from June. The Dow traded roughly flat, the S&P 500 edged up 0.3%, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.7%. Traders tilted their bets toward the Fed holding rates steady in September after a roughly 50-50 split the day before.
That's the story the financial press wants to sell: inflation is cooling, markets are rising, the system works. But strip away the green ticks on a screen and here's what remains: inflation is still running at 3.4% — nearly double the Federal Reserve's 2% target. The central bank has been hiking rates for over a year, and it still hasn't gotten prices back to where they promised they'd be. Working Americans are paying more for everything from food to fuel, and the only people celebrating are the ones who own the assets.
Yahoo Finance framed the CPI print as
