We’re in the stubborn phase of inflation cooling

June 13, 2023, Audio: "May’s consumer price index, released Tuesday, shows that inflation rose 4% last month from a year earlier.  While that’s well below its peak of more than 9% last June, there’s a ways to go before the Federal Reserve reaches its target of 2% inflation.  We’ve gotten to the part of the inflation journey where the Fed is trying to squeeze the last bits out of the toothpaste tube. But it’s slow going, according to David Wilcox, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Bloomberg Economics.  “The pathway ahead looks like it will take longer than anyone would prefer,” he said.  Why? Well, it’s partly because when it comes to inflation, the most obvious and temporary problems tend to sort themselves out first: the pandemic and all the erratic consumer spending during its different phases, the initial shock to oil prices because of the war in Ukraine."