Where is inflation still rising the most?

The pockets of inflation that just won’t go away

4/12/24 11:37AM

The endless escalator

Inflation is that one unwanted guest that just won’t leave: headline inflation (CPI) in March rose to 3.5% annually, up from 3.2% the month before.

Investors didn’t love the news initially as it pushed expectations of rate cuts further out, but markets have short memories — the S&P 500 is now actually flat this week, thanks to a better day (+0.7%) yesterday.

On a personal level, though, you might be wondering: what’s still going up in price?

The bad news: The cost of buying a new car hasn’t changed much… but insuring it has. Indeed, auto insurance prices have gone nuts — rising more than 22% per the latest release. Insurers are shifting the blame onto the increasing cost of “repairing and replacing cars”, which has also risen (some 12%), though not quite to the same extent.

The other bad news: Your household bills are likely still stubbornly climbing, with rent, housing, and electricity costs all up ~5-6% in the last year.

The good news: If you’d rather fly than drive, it's a different story. Indeed, if you catch a plane across the country and rent a car on arrival, you should pay less than a year ago for both the flight (down 7%) and the rental car (down 9%). The cost of eating at home is only up 1% in the last year, and buying a massive TV has never been cheaper... which is perhaps why no-one goes to the movies anymore.

Saleah Blancaflor

5/15/26

From Desi Arnaz to SpaceX: Understanding the rules of the modern economy

We talked with “Planet Money” author Alex Mayyasi about how AI might help or replace you, the superstar effect, and how the compounding effect extends beyond money.

Globes covered with various currencies suspended in space

Millie Giles5/8/26

Ahead of Mother’s Day, Google searches for “same day flower delivery” have ticked up a little earlier this year

If you’ve already made plans for a Mother’s Day gift in advance of this Sunday, congratulations. But if alarm bells are suddenly ringing, consider this a gentle reminder that, like a sizable share of the US population this time of year often does, you can still scrape together some last-minute flowers for the woman who carried you for nine months.

Data from Google Trends reveals that searches for “same day flower delivery” spike in the US in May every year, when Mother’s Day takes place. As we noted last February, the same query also gains traction around Valentine’s Day.

This year, however, it appears that searches for last-minute flowers have remained elevated in the last two months after the usual peak in February — with the search interest this April actually exceeding that seen around Cupid’s Day.

Honestly, we’re not sure why searches are spiking a little early. One explanation might be that Passover and Easter have overlapped at the start of April, and Americans wanted to celebrate with some flowers. Maybe it’s a host of Claude bots that are now running errands for AI-obsessed execs — or perhaps Americans are just impulse-buying some seasonal spring blooms after an unusually warm March, without a particular occasion.