U.S. President Trump Has Crushed Biden's Inflation Crisis

Wholesale inflation fell in August - smashing economists' expectations - as President Donald J. Trump continues to make good on his promise to tame inflation. The number underscores what the Trump Administration has been saying all along: American consumers are seeing little effect on prices from tariffs.

Here's what you need to know:

• The Producer Price Index (PPI), which serves as a bellwether for prices consumers may see in the months ahead, came in at 2.6% year-over-year in August - far below economists' expectations of 3.3%.
  • Wholesale prices declined in August from the month prior - also defying economists' expectations.
  • Prices for energy goods, trade services, and final demand services all fell in August.
• President Trump was right again: companies refrained from outsized price increases last month despite tariffs.
• This comes as small business optimism is on the rise - increasing in August to its highest level since January and above its historical average.

Here's what they're saying:

• CNBC's Rick Santelli: "Boy, I'm surprised - real progress here. 2.6% on the year-over-year headline. We were expecting 3.3%!"
• Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian: "What we're learning is that the final impact on the consumer is much less than people expected… If the Fed is truly data dependent, the question should be, 'Why not 50 [basis points]?'"
• Bullseye Investment Group's Adam Johnson: "This is fantastic news. Producer prices much lower than we thought… I thought we were going to see some of the tariff impact in this inflation data. We haven't seen it. 2.6% was the PPI. We thought it was going to be 3.3%. This is just such wonderful news. I'm thrilled."
• Fox Business Network's Cheryl Casone: "That tariff [price] impact… not seeing it - and here we go with a very positive and good inflation report coming out."
• CNBC's Becky Quick: "That's a real shocker, Steve, the idea that inflation is so much weaker than anticipated."
• Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian: "There's the exporter, there's the importer, and there's the consumer - and so far, the consumer is carrying the least of the burden."