The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Sept. 21, edition that using the 2019 auto workers strike as a proxy, Morgan Stanley's Ellen Zentner and colleagues estimate that higher prices for new vehicles could add 0.02 percentage point to monthly CPI. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that UBS economists reckon new and used car prices will rise "marginally" and that the overall impact on inflation will be "limited." Fed officials will hope so. This comes just when the grind higher in oil is starting to bite -- crude futures are up 30 per cent in the last three months and for the first time since December the year-on-year price change is positive. That is, oil is once again inflationary, not deflationary. The timing could not be worse. Annual inflation has plummeted this year and by some measures now has, or is close to having, a "2" handle -- the central bank's 2-per-cent goal is within sight. The American public is getting more confident that the inflation scare is over, too. The University of Michigan's preliminary five-year consumer inflation expectations index for September fell to 2.7 per cent, the lowest since April, 2021, and the one-year outlook fell to 3.1 per cent, the lowest since March, 2021.