Gas Pushes Inflation to 3.7% on Social Security Raise Day
· MuddySouth Music
If your truck tank has felt like a bottomless pit lately, the government just put a number on it. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday morning that consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in September after a 0.4 percent rise in August. Over the last 12 months prices are up 3.7 percent, faster than the 3.4 percent pace through August.
Gas did most of the damage
According to the BLS, the gasoline index jumped 9.1 percent in September alone and accounted for more than half of the monthly increase. Over the past year gasoline is up 34.2 percent, fuel oil is up 74.2 percent, and the whole energy index is up 20.4 percent. There was a little relief at the grocery store: the food index was flat for the month, food at home slipped 0.1 percent, beef fell 1.0 percent, and milk dropped 2.0 percent. Prices outside food and energy rose 0.3 percent for the month and 2.6 percent for the year.
Why retirees are reading the same report
This is also the report that settles next year's Social Security raise. The cost-of-living adjustment is figured from a narrower index called CPI-W, which tracks prices for wage earners and clerical workers, by comparing the July through September average with the same months last year. The BLS says CPI-W is up 3.9 percent over the past 12 months. Ahead of the release, forecasters cited by CNBC expected a 2027 raise of 3.5 to 3.6 percent, up from 2.8 percent for 2026. The Social Security Administration posts the official figure on its COLA page, and the new amount shows up in January 2027 payments.
For plenty of Southern families, that check is not just Mamaw's money. It covers a light bill, a prescription, sometimes a grandbaby's school shoes. A raise in the mid-3s helps, but it does not hand back what working people already paid at the pump this year.
A phone call down to the studio
I called the MuddySouth Music studio to get a producer's take, and he picked up with a mix still playing behind him. He said the interview that morning had already run from taxes to turbo, so inflation fit right in. Then he flipped the question on me: if Hell is hot, does that make Heaven cold? He laughed and said he is not the man with every answer to every question, and never claimed to be. What he does know is that good people have been living and dying to keep this country moving, free, and under God, and good report or bad report, that is not about to change. Somebody hollered for another playback and he was gone. Busy day in the studio.
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I write these for folks who feel the headlines at the register before they ever read them. MuddySouth Music has a big year of outreach coming, with more chances to meet the crew face to face, and everybody on our contact list gets the word first, before it hits social media. It is free, takes about a minute, and gives you something worth showing up for when the news runs heavy. Get your name on the list and I will see you at the next one.