Inflation in the US rises above 5 percent – end of loose monetary policy?

Economic stimuli in historical dimensions, acute labor shortages, a growth rate of more than six percent that otherwise only emerging countries achieve – you don’t have to be particularly imaginative to see economic overheating tendencies.

The monthly inflation data testify to this. Also in August it was now 5.3 percent, after 5.4 in the previous month. Even if the reason for the increase was primarily the volatile energy and food prices – a stable five to the decimal point, nobody would have thought that a year ago that would have been possible in this dimension.

In addition to the US-specific characteristics, there are the global effects that drive prices up: unstable supply chains, declining globalization and rapidly rising energy prices. And there is no special VAT effect like in this country in the USA.

So why is the US Federal Reserve still hesitating? If not now, when should the most powerful of all central banks resolutely tackle the exit from the loose monetary policy?