Below is a summary of my post-CPI tweets. You can (and should!) follow me @inflation_guy or sign up for email updates to my occasional articles here. Investors with interests in this area be sure to stop by Enduring Investments. Plus...buy my book about money and inflation, just published! The title of the book is What's Wrong with Money? The Biggest Bubble of All; order from Amazon here.

• In prep for CPI: Econs forecasting about 0.15% core; Cleveland Fed's Nowcast is 0.18%; avg of last 4 months is 0.20%.

• So, econs which have been too bullish on econ for a year (see citi surprise index) are bearish on CPI.

• If we get any m/m core less than 0.20% (even 0.19%), y/y will round to 2.1% b/c dropping off high 2015 April.

• But after that, next 8 months from 2015 were <0.20% so any downtick wouldn't be start of something new.

• Hard to tell but the core CPI print was SLIGHTLY above expectations. 0.195%, so y/y was 2.147%.

• In other words, if someone charged another nickel for a candy bar somewhere we would have had 2.2% again. <<hyperbole

• That 0.195% m/m was lower than April 2015, but higher than May, June, July, Aug, Sep, Nov, and Dec.

• Core services unch at 3.0%; core goods downticked to -0.5% y/y.

• y/y Medical Care decelerated for second month in a row, down to 2.98% y/y; still looks to be in a broad uptrend from 2% in 2014. [ed note: chart added for clarity]

• Within Medical Care, medicinal drugs accelerated, prof svcs was flat. Hospital svcs dropped from 4.33 to 3.15% y/y

• Hospital services oscillates - we'll probably get that back to 4%-4.5% which will push med care back up.

• Primary Rents 3.73% from 3.66%. OER 3.15% from 3.12%. Some were expecting deceleration there. Not us!

• Lodging Away from Home dropped to 1.32% from 2.27%. That, and various home furnishings, is why Housing subcat went to 2.12 vs 2.14.

• But Rents and OER are the stable measures...not Lodging, not furnishings.

• Core ex-housing fell to 1.39% from 1.48%, but again that's due to elements of med care and housing that are likely to rebound.

• Lots of movement within Apparel but overall nothing. The February pop looks like a one-off.

• Overall, a more buoyant number than expected and the stuff holding core CPI down are the transient things.

• Biggest m/m declines: infants'/toddlers' apparel (-26.5% annualized), fresh fruits & veggies; women's apparel; Lodging away from home.

• Biggest m/m outliers: Motor Fuel (+152.3% annualized), Fuel Oil, Processed Fruits & Veggies; Motor Vehicle Insurance.

• My estimate of median CPI is actually 0.28% m/m and 2.46% y/y. But...

• ...but the median category this month may be affected by regional housing, and I don't have the BLS factors. So grain of salt needed.

• This summarizes the inflation story. Rents and Services ex-rents both rising ~3%. Core goods is the anchor.

Discussion: after last month's surprising m/m core CPI print of +0.07%, many were questioning whether that was the outlier, or whether the +0.29% and +0.28% of January and February were the outliers. The answer might be that they are all outliers, as this month's print was very close to the 4-month average. But even so, +0.2% m/m would produce a 2.4% core inflation number by the year's end. That's consistent with what we are being told by Median inflation. Both figures would suggest core PCE, after all of the temporary effects are removed, is essentially at or slightly above the Fed's 2% target.

There are two pertinent questions at this juncture. The first is whether the Fed will feel any urgency to raise rates more quickly because of this data. The answer to that, I think, is clearly "no." This Federal Reserve's reaction function seems to be overly (and overtly) tilted towards growth indicators - and even more than that, their forecast of growth indicators. The majority of the Committee also believes that inflation expectations are "anchored" and so inflation can't really move higher very quickly. They only pay lip service to inflation concerns, and honestly they aren't even very good at the lip service.

The second question is where inflation goes next. Whether the Federal Reserve raises the target overnight rate or not, the question of inflation is relevant for markets. And the indicators seem to be fairly clear: the larger and more persistent categories are seeing price increases of around 3% or more, while the main drag comes from a "core goods" component that is highly influenced by the lagged effect of dollar strength (see chart, source Bloomberg).

Recently, the dollar has been weakening marginally but still is in a broad uptrend (looking at the broad, trade-weighted dollar). But if the buck merely goes flat, core goods will start to move higher. And that means even if core services remain steady, core inflation should push towards 3% later this year.

This doesn't sound like much but it would be highly significant (and surprising) for many observers, investors, and consumers. Core inflation has not been above 3% for two decades (see chart, source Bloomberg).

This means - incredibly - that many students in college today have never seen core inflation above 3%, and more importantly many investors have not seen core inflation above 3% during their investment lives. When core inflation breaches that level, it will feel like hyperinflation to some people! And I do not think markets will like it.

P.S. Don't forget to buy my book! What's Wrong with Money: The Biggest Bubble of All. Thanks!

You can follow me @inflation_guy!

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