127: The Squeeze Is On

We're back with some breaking economic data.

Inflation rose by 3.7 percent in September year over year and 0.6 percent month over month.

NBC News business and economy reporter Ali Canal is at the big board for us here at the desk.

We've got NBC News contributor Caleb Silver.

He's the chief business editor of People Inc. and Investopedia's editor in chief.

Ali, let's start with you.

Walk us through the big numbers here, how they compare with previous months.

Yeah, well, inflation coming in as expected here, but still very sticky.

As you mentioned, Joe, 3.7% in September compared to 3.4% in August, that monthly rise of 0.6%.

That's one of the largest increases that we've seen in years.

And all of this has been driven by high diesel prices.

We know diesel costs are up about 75% since the war with Iran began.

And this report is very important because not only does it come ahead of the midterm elections, it also comes ahead of the next Fed interest rate decision later this month.

We know the Fed's target for inflation is 2% all the way down here.

And right now we're just going in the wrong direction.

We were actually heading towards that number earlier this year, but then with the Iran war, crisis shot up.

And again, we're seeing very, very sticky inflation here, guys.

Oh man.

We could have had a beautiful, beautiful inflation, the best inflation.

So based on the government's latest numbers, it's pretty incredible.

This is bad news really for the White House.

And like they said in there, this is the last report before the midterms.

It's a crapper.

So they're in full spin mode over there in the White House.

And I think sometimes you got to listen to the spin because you can learn something from what they're trying to spin.