Would You Buy A Used Car From This Economist? (Is “Inflation” Real?)

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Economist? (Is “Inflation” Real?)

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 17: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during a hearing ... [+] before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee July 17, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing on "The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress." (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The media tell us that, among many other inflation-related worries, there is a crisis in (of all things) the used car business. Wow. "Inflation" anxiety has run off the charts. The media have called for cloture on further debate. The markets are placing bets on how soon, how many, and how large the inevitable interest rate increases will be. Barron's this week ponders whether Fed Chairman Jerome Powell or Vladimir Putin is the greater threat to the peace and well-being of equity investors. But there is a lot wrong with this whole picture, and the "used car" anomaly is a window on many of those problems. I haven't written much about inflation lately. The incipient media consensus (the Financial Times calls it a "febrile narrative" — a nice turn of phrase) has crowded out my kind. The economic house is on fire (we are told). "Inflation is