[throwaway_75369]

Ugh. I'm actually nervous about the fact that real wages rose along with this bump.

> There also was some good news for workers in the August report, as real average hourly earnings rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month. However, they remained down 2.8% from a year ago.

> The Federal Reserve is hoping to slow a labor market that has posted solid job gains through the year. Specifically, policymakers are concerned about a huge gap between job openings and available workers as labor force participation is stuck below its pre-pandemic levels. That has resulted in rising wages that have in turn put pressure on prices.

Doesn't that mean we could be looking at a wage-price spiral?

If that's true, then maybe the Fed really wants to see a big weakening of the labor market in order to create downward pressure on wages. Doesn't that mean they want to see layoffs? Really hope that's not the case...

[francisofascii]

Yeah. it feels like a no win situation. If you want to fight inflation, you probably have to endure the pain of higher unemployment and a recession. People described Volcker raising interest rates in the early 80's as being like chemotherapy.