The Fed's Backward Looking Data: Is It Valid?

We saw a big rise in spending in January, a smaller rise in February and now a flat reading for the month of March. Is that because of inflation or just because they bought everything they wanted to back in January? We don't know. One thing that happens is we had a late Easter this year - usually that affects spending numbers. So let's see what happens with April and whether we really have a slowdown or whether the Fed has more work to do.