Yellen Says She Regrets Pushing the ‘Transitory’ Inflation Narrative as Price Pressures Tick Up

A day after the latest inflation data came in hotter than expected, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the path to relieving price pressures will be bumpy and expressed regret for being one of many Biden administration officials who repeatedly insisted that inflation would be “transitory.” The consumer price index (CPI), a measure of retail inflation, came in at a 3.2 percent in February, above consensus estimates and up from 3.1 percent in the prior month, according to data released on March 12 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The latest data brings the cumulative inflation since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 to roughly 19 percent. However, alternative CPI measures, like the ShadowStats gauge that uses the same methodology the U.S. government used in the 1980s, estimate that the actual pace of inflation is nearly twice as high....