Sometimes covering this economy really is all about the data.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizdole.

It is Thursday today, the first day of December.

It is always to have you along, everybody.

What a day this was for those inclined toward a data centric view of this economy.

First among headlines was something called the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index.

PCE is the shorthand.

It's the measure of inflation preferred by the Federal Reserve, as I think we've told you.

And the word today from the Bureau of Economic Analysis was that prices were up 6% in October

over a year ago, that's down from a 6.3% annual rate of increase in September.

The October core number that is less food and energy, of course, down compared to September

as well.

Now, channel your energy pal here and ask yourself, is that enough?

Marketplace's Christen Schwab takes stock of where we are.

There's no one piece of data that gives anyone a perfect understanding of what's happening

with inflation right now.

Just have their favorite indicators, but those favorites can change.

Lawrence Ball is an economist at Johns Hopkins.

The initial rise in inflation had a lot to do with the chip shortage that led to car prices,

spiking, the supply chain problems.

Really now it is a story about the labor market.

...