Fed Prays For Inflation Reprieve

The Fed could really -- really -- use a break on the inflation front. Policymakers would like to believe data covering August, September, October and November -- when the numbers exhibited signs of percolating inflation -- was just a testament to the idea that the proverbial "last mile" of the road to (arbitrarily-defined) price stability was destined to be "bumpy," as Jerome Powell likes to describe it, for lack of a more eloquent term (or maybe it's a nod to "plain English"). But consider th