Growth, inflation, wages and employment covered in terms of what they do to family finances. Coverage pairs national figures with regional breakdowns and the categories where price changes bite hardest. Written for consumer analysts, brand and pricing teams, and readers managing a budget against a moving cost base.
Core inflation strips food and energy prices from the index, producing the smoother series the Federal Reserve treats as the better guide to underlying price pressure.
Lena Fischer · August 28, 2026
The Consumer Price Index comes from monthly price checks on roughly 80,000 items across dozens of U.S. areas, weighted by a separate survey of household spending.
Lena Fischer · August 15, 2026
A quarter of the U.S. consumer price index tracks a rent no homeowner pays. Here is how the Bureau of Labor Statistics builds the number, and why it lags market rents.
Lena Fischer · August 13, 2026
The Federal Reserve lowered its policy rate 50 basis points to 4.75-5.00 percent in September 2024, its first cut since March 2020, citing rising labor-market risk.
Lena Fischer · August 10, 2026
Americans routinely tell surveyors the economy is terrible and then keep spending — and the 2022–2025 cycle proved the mood-spending gap can last years.
Lena Fischer · July 23, 2026