Consumer price inflation has been a genuine concern for the economy and the consumer for the last few years. Last week's October headline number of a 3.2 percent annual gain has led the "inflation is normalizing" cheer. And the chart below suggests were close. But I caution that it may be hard to normalize inflation until wage inflation normalizes which is still tracking ~4 percent above prior year. To give you some perspective, and you know I love to do so, annual wage inflation for the decade before COVID averaged at 2.4 percent.