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The January inflation numbers were worse than expected, and Wall Street had its worst day since March of last year.
The Dow dropped 524.63 points. The NASDAQ lost nearly 300 points and the S&P 500 was down 68.
The January inflation report showed that prices went up last month by 0.3%. That is higher than the expectation of 0.2%. Heritage Foundation economist EJ Antoni says the White House, once again, has egg on their face.
"They keep telling that inflation is going down, except month after month, we see prices go up very rapidly," Antoni said.
The Federal Reserve has wanted to see inflation at 2% year over year. It's now at 3.1%, higher than the 2.9% predicted. The Fed has talked about lowering interest rates this year, but Antoni thinks that would be a bad idea.
"We run the risk of accelerating inflation, which is exactly what happened in the late 1970's and into the early 1980's, he said.