To be sure, if current personal consumption outlays slow significantly further than the pattern now in train suggests, profit and sales expectations might be scaled back, possibly inducing some hesitancy in moving forward even with capital projects that appear quite profitable over the longer run.
These data confirm that the Fed is hitting its full employment mandate, so all my attention is on bringing inflation down. Inflation slowed in July, which was a very encouraging development. Headline inflation for both the consumer price index and the index derived from personal consumption expenditures (PCE)—the Fed’s preferred measure—slowed, largely due to continuing declines in prices for gasoline and other petroleum products.