Change what happens next, from oil and tariffs to the Fed, and see where inflation heads in six months and a year. A guessing game of sorts, not a reliable prediction. The numbers come from rough starter estimates, and real inflation depends on far more than eight dials.
Inflation is how fast prices are rising across the whole economy. We already know what it is today. This calculator is for a different question: if something changes now, where does inflation go over the next six months and the next year? Every dial is a thing that can happen, never a price reading: where the oil price is headed, the Fed's interest rate, new tariffs on imports, extra government spending, how fast the money supply is growing, how fast paychecks are growing, the unemployment rate, and the dollar against other currencies. Part of today's inflation carries over and the rest fades toward the Fed's 2% target; each dial pushes only when it sits above or below its normal level. Oil is the biggest short-term swing, tariffs and the dollar work through imports, and the Fed works slowly, as do money and government spending. The interactive version shows each push as a bar, so you can see what is pushing inflation up or down and add the bars up yourself.
A simplified teaching model with starter estimates, not a forecast or investment advice. Nothing you enter is stored.
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