Dear Reader,
The government released the October inflation report this morning.
The number was bad. But that is not the story.
The story is what they could not give you: a yearly comparison. The government shutdown last year erased all of October 2025's price data. Gone. No baseline. No annual rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said so itself, right in the report.
And even without a yearly figure, the monthly numbers still look bad.
Inside today's issue:
- The CPI miss: October prices rose 0.4% when Wall Street expected 0.3%. Food up 0.5%. Energy up 0.7%. The Fed is not done raising rates.
- The missing data: A government shutdown erased the October 2025 benchmark. Today's report cannot compare this year to last. They are flying blind and so are you.
- China's double move: While you were reading the CPI, two separate China supply shocks went live this morning. Both are inflationary. Neither made the front page.
- Robert Kiyosaki — Perpetual Income Plan: The Kiyosaki Opportunity Watchlist screens thousands of companies down to the ones that pay you to own them.
WHAT THEY MEASURED
Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October. Wall Street expected 0.3%. They were wrong.
Food was up 0.5% for the month. Energy climbed 0.7%. Core inflation, stripping out food and energy, came in at 0.3%. That matched August and September exactly.
That 0.3% core figure is not just a number. The night before the report dropped, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told reporters that the Fed should consider a larger rate hike in December if core came in around 0.3%.
It did.
Treasury yields rose. Stocks fell. The bond market is now pricing in another hike before year-end.
WHAT THEY LOST
Here is the part every anchor glossed over.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics published no annual rate today. No year-over-year figure. The reason: the 2025 government shutdown left the government without October 2025 price data. It was never collected. It is gone.
"The Labor Department did not report a year-over-year inflation rate for October 2026 because the 2025 government shutdown left it without October 2025 consumer price data for comparison."
So ask yourself: how is the Fed supposed to know if inflation is improving or getting worse when the government cannot compare this October to last?
They are building rate policy on a foundation with a missing floor.
The government caused the inflation. Then a shutdown, caused by the same dysfunction that created the debt, accidentally deleted the benchmark needed to measure it. The result is the same as if they had done it on purpose: you cannot trust the number.
THE CYCLE CALL
I have studied monetary history for 50 years. Every empire in decline runs the same playbook. Spend more than you earn. Print money to cover the gap. Then lose the data needed to prove what you did.
Rome did not keep accurate records of its currency debasements. That was not an accident either.
There is one more piece to this morning's story. It did not make the CPI headlines. It happened overnight, in Beijing. And it is about to put more pressure on every price in this report.
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THE PLAY
Here is what happened in Beijing while Americans were reading the CPI report.
Two deadlines hit at the same time this morning. First: 178 categories of Chinese goods lost their Section 301 tariff protections at 11:59 PM Eastern last night. The 25% tariff snaps back as of today. No extension was announced.
Second: China's suspension of expanded rare earth export controls also expires today. Those controls cover the magnets inside every electric vehicle, every drone, every missile guidance system made outside China. The International Energy Agency estimates the full controls could put $6.5 trillion of downstream production at risk.
Two supply chain shocks. Same morning. While the government is publishing a CPI with no annual comparison to put them in context.
The mainstream press will give you each story separately. They will not connect them.
Here is the connection. When tariffs raise the price of imported goods and rare earth supply tightens, the things Americans buy every day cost more. That is inflation. That is what the Fed just promised to fight with another rate hike. And that is what the government cannot accurately measure right now.
The answer is 5,000 years old.
The people who survive currency chaos own things. Land. Metals. Real assets. Not promises printed on paper by a government that cannot track its own numbers.
Gold was up this morning. Silver followed. The market knows what the BLS cannot say out loud: inflation is not beaten. It just became harder to measure.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day. We honor the men and women who protect this country. The least the rest of us can do is protect the purchasing power they earned.
To your freedom,
Robert Kiyosaki
Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad
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