Hi, I'm Naila Boodoo, and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story. It's Friday, October 15th, and we're focused on inflation.

The global energy crisis is becoming a bigger problem for the economy. The consumer price index, the best way to measure inflation in the U.S.,

jumped 5.4% in September compared to last year. That's according to new data released this week.

The cost of food, cars, TVs have all seen rapid price increases. And you know what else made a

big jump? Energy prices. The price of gasoline rose another 1.2% in September,

after increasing 2.8% in August and 2.4% in July. How is the Federal Reserve and the Biden

administration reacting to this latest data? In a moment, Axios's Felix Salmon on energy prices and

inflation. And we're joined now by Axios's chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon on energy prices and inflation.

And we're joined now by Axios's chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon, who's been reporting on the latest consumer price index data. Hey, Felix.

Nyla, let's have a spirited debate.

Well, our Axios today listeners will know from our many conversations this year that you

have been, I'm going to call you an

inflation denier for some time now. In other words, saying do not worry about inflation.

I am not an inflation denier. I am saying that you shouldn't worry. I'm not saying it doesn't

exist. It totally exists. It's 100%. Okay. Let's call you an inflation worried denier. Are you worried now about inflation?

No.

So prices went up earlier this year, and at the time you said that was expected, can you explain what's going on now and what we've seen in the past few months with prices going up?

So there's a few different things going on here. The first one, which is very exciting and we should all be happy about, is that low-paid

Americans are getting paid a lot more.

Low-paid Americans in service industries, like in, say, fast food or healthcare or places,

hotels, getting paid more.

They're not getting paid $10 now.

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