The US Democratic party has an ancestral fear of rising energy prices. For good reason: Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, is indelibly associated, in the minds of voters of a certain age, with queues of cars outside petrol stations and his well-meaning but seemingly ineffectual instructions to turn down the thermostat and put a sweater on. The incumbent president, Joe Biden, now has reason to fear that his domestic agenda and popularity, like those of his predecessor, will be forever tainted by higher fuel prices.

Figures this week showed that the US inflation rate was at its highest level for three decades during October. The data provides some more support for “team permanent” — those economists who believe that the current rise in inflation will sustain itself. As well as a higher headline figure beating expectations, the increase is broad-based and reflects a particularly sharp increase in rents. Short-term US government debt sold off after the figures were published, indicating investors believed the Federal Reserve would need to raise rates sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, “team transitory”, who include among their number the Fed chair Jay Powell, can find some consolation. Used car prices have rocketed again, linked to the shortage of semiconductor chips, but they are likely to resume their downward slide soon. Powell has distinguished between inflation being “shortlived” and transitory, pointing out that what the Fed is interested in is how the current spike affects the long-term trend rather than how long it lasts. Removing volatile food and energy to gain a measure of “core inflation” and the figures look less dramatic: at 4.6 per cent rather than 6.2 per cent. That is still high, but around the same level it was in June.