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I stand corrected. I erred in stating that the inflation rate of 17.1% stated in the 6/11 letter “Rumor Mill” was wildly inaccurate. Using the InflationData. com calculator inflation from 01/2021 to 10/2023 it was actually 17.62%. However, this is a measure of the cumulative inflation rate, not yearly. For instance, the cumulative interest rate from 01/2017 to 01/2021 was 7.72% The cumulative rate from 01/2021 to 01/2025 was 21.4%.
Breaking down inflation rates by year yielded these figures: From 01/2021 to 01/2022 7.48%; 01/2022 to 01/2023 6.41%; 01/2023 to 01/2024 3.09%; 01/2024 to 01/2025 3.0%. So inflation, while high, was steadily decreasing from 2021 to 2025. What made the cumulative numbers from the Biden presidency look so horrible? The pandemic and the huge influx of money the government added to the economy to stave off an economic meltdown drove inflation up. This is the why to accompany the what ignored by the Rumor Mill writer. So for the writer of the 06/02 letter who wanted an apples to apples comparison, yearly inflation was 1.40% from 01/2020 to 01/2021 and 3.0% from 01/2024 to 01/2025. Numbers tell a story but context is important to understand them.
