Why Is It So Hard to Hit the Brakes on Inflation?

<p>In the struggle to control inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times already this year.</p><p>But those efforts can be blunted if companies keep raising prices regardless. And one industry has illustrated that difficulty particularly starkly: the car market.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jeanna-smialek?smid=pc-thedaily">Jeanna Smialek</a>, a federal reserve and economy reporter for The New York Times.</p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Many companies have been able to raise prices beyond their own increasing costs over the past two years, swelling their profitability but also exacerbating inflation. That is<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/business/economy/inflation-car-market.html"> especially true in the car market</a>.</li><li>Inflation stayed far above the Federal Reserve’s goal in August, as<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/business/economy/inflation-fed.html"> prices climbed more quickly</a> than economists expected.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>