Our week in review comes down to one uncomfortable fact: inflation is not done with us, and the people who run the government keep finding ways to avoid saying so. Prices ran hot at the store and at the wholesale level. Bond investors pushed the 10-year Treasury yield past 5%. The new fiscal year opened with a record October deficit. Meanwhile, the political class spent much of the week arguing about the last election and dodging hard votes.
This Week in Review pulls those threads together. Each story below links to our full analysis from the week, but the point here is the pattern. Read one at a time, these look like separate headlines. Read together, they describe a government that borrows too much, a central bank forced to clean up after it, and a Congress that keeps handing its hardest jobs to someone else.
The Week in Review by the Numbers
Before the commentary, here are the figures that defined the week, all drawn from official releases and the reporting cited in our posts.
| Measure | This week’s number |
|---|---|
| Consumer prices, October (BLS) | +0.4% for the month; core +0.3% |
| Producer prices, October (BLS) | +0.3% for the month; +6.5% from a year ago |
| 10-year Treasury yield | 4.98% Tuesday close; about 5.07% Thursday |
| October federal deficit (CBO estimate) | $409 billion, vs. $284 billion in October 2025 |
| 30-year mortgage rate (Freddie Mac, Nov. 12) | 7.11%, vs. 6.24% a year ago |
| House vote to sideline Hegseth impeachment | 211-204 |
| Jordan vs. Scalise for House GOP leader | 106-73 |
| Southwest border apprehensions, FY2026 (CBP) | 98,708 |
Inflation Week in Review: Hot at the Register, Hotter Upstream
Tuesday’s consumer price report set the tone. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the consumer price index rose 0.4% in October, after a 0.6% jump in September. Core prices, which strip out food and energy, rose 0.3% for the third straight month. Because last year’s shutdown wiped out October 2025 price collection, there was no official yearly rate this time. As we explained in our October CPI breakdown, the missing number does not hide the trend. A 0.3% monthly core pace works out to roughly 3.7% a year, nearly double the Fed’s target.
Friday’s producer price index made the picture worse. Wholesale prices rose 0.3% in October and are up 6.5% from a year ago, the fastest pace since November 2022. Energy actually fell during the month. Even so, prices outside food, energy and trade margins rose 0.5% and are up 4.9% over the year.
That matters for the argument Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made on CNBC the same morning. He called the readings “very noisy numbers” tied to a fading energy shock from the Iran war, and he urged the Fed not to hike too much. We took that case seriously in our look at Bessent and wholesale prices, and we came away unconvinced. An oil shock does not push up core prices while energy is falling. Instead, something broader is going on.
Our view: the honest conservative position is to let the Fed finish the job. Inflation is a tax nobody votes for, and it lands hardest on savers, families on fixed incomes and anyone living paycheck to paycheck. When the Treasury, the biggest borrower in the world, lobbies for cheaper money, markets notice. That is not how you get lower rates.
Bond Markets Sent the Bill
As a result, investors responded quickly. After the CPI release, the 2-year Treasury yield jumped 17 basis points to 4.73%, its biggest one-day rise since the tariff shock of April 2025. The 10-year closed at 4.98%. By Thursday it was trading near 5.07%, and that same week Treasury sold new 10-year notes at a 5.02% yield. Futures markets now treat a December rate hike as close to certain. Fed Governor Christopher Waller even said a half-point move “should be considered” if core inflation holds near 0.3%.
As our Treasury yields analysis argued, this is not just a Fed story. The average interest rate on the government’s marketable debt reached 3.57% at the end of October, up from 3.39% a year earlier. Every point of that increase rolls into the budget as old debt is refinanced. Families also feel it. Freddie Mac’s 30-year mortgage average was 7.11% this week, compared with 6.24% a year ago.
In other words, high rates are the market’s way of charging Washington for its habits. The fastest relief would come from borrowing less, not from leaning on the Fed.
A Record October Deficit to Start the Fiscal Year
Earlier, on Monday, the week brought the number that explains why bond buyers are nervous. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the October deficit at $409 billion. Revenue came in around $369 billion, while spending hit about $778 billion. Compared with October 2025, revenue fell $36 billion and spending rose $89 billion.
In our Controller’s Desk on the October deficit, we put it in plain terms. Washington spent about $2.11 for every dollar it collected last month, up from about $1.70 a year earlier. No business could close its books that way for long. Net interest on the debt already topped $1 trillion in fiscal 2026, more than the defense budget. Higher yields will push that line up again.
This is the part of the week in review that gets the least attention and matters most. Inflation, interest costs and deficits are not three stories. They are one story about a government spending beyond its means during a period of growth, when it should be paying down debt instead.
Politics Week in Review: Blame, Leadership and a Dodged Vote
The political side of the week in review had a common thread too: almost nobody wanted to own a hard decision.
Trump Questions the Midterms
On Monday, President Trump asked on Truth Social whether the midterm election “was honest,” blaming polls, early voting “dumps” and “the machines.” He offered no evidence. That was a sharp turn from election night, when he said he was willing to accept the results, and from his own 60 Minutes explanation that voters “didn’t like the war” and “didn’t like that gasoline was up.”
We covered this in our look at the midterm election results. Each of his three culprits can be checked, and each points the other way. For example, Pew Research found that polls understated the Democratic margin by at least 2 points in 23 of 27 Senate and governor races. That is a normal polling miss, about the size of the 2020 error that ran the other way. Election integrity is a real conservative cause, and that is exactly why it should rest on evidence. Unproven claims cheapen real wins, like the voter ID measures that passed in several states.
Jordan Takes Over a Smaller Conference
On Tuesday, House Republicans chose Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan over Majority Leader Steve Scalise, 106-73, to lead them in the minority starting in January. Tom Emmer kept the whip job, 103-76. In other words, members changed the man at the top and kept most of the team.
As we wrote in our piece on Jordan’s win, a minority that only plays defense stays a minority. Jordan’s job is to give voters a reason to come back, and that means a budget and a plan for the cost of living, not just hearings.
The Hegseth Impeachment Fizzled, but the War Question Didn’t
The same night, the House voted 211-204 to send Rep. Thomas Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, which effectively killed it. Massie was the only Republican to vote with Democrats. According to CBS News, 11 Democrats and seven Republicans missed the vote. Several Democrats later blamed traffic.
We argued before the vote that impeachment aimed at the wrong man. Congress owns the decision to fund or authorize a war, and that responsibility sits with members, not a Cabinet secretary. Massie now plans to force a war powers vote. That is the right fight, and with a Dec. 11 government funding deadline ahead, lawmakers will have a real chance to show where they stand.
Foreign Policy Week in Review: Iran, Mexico and the Limits of Leverage
Meanwhile, two foreign policy stories tested how Washington uses pressure.
On Iran, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran will not let its enriched uranium leave the country. In our analysis of that refusal, we argued it settles the question for now. If the regime keeps its bomb fuel, there is no deal worth signing. The naval blockade and sanctions should stay, and America should be in no hurry. Pressure costs far less than renewed combat, in money and in lives.
On Thursday, Trump threatened to double tariffs on Mexico unless it stops a caravan of roughly 1,500 migrants that left Tapachula on Tuesday. The goal is sound. However, the tool is not. Border Patrol made 98,708 southwest border apprehensions in fiscal 2026, a 95% drop from the peak years, according to CBP. That collapse came from enforcement, not tariffs. As our Mexico tariffs analysis explained, a tariff is a tax paid by American importers, and Texas, which traded $301.8 billion in goods with Mexico last year, would feel it first. Enforcement is the better weapon, and it is already working.
A Corporate Shock With a National Security Edge
The biggest business story in this week in review was also a political one. Nvidia announced Thursday that co-founder Jensen Huang had resigned as chief executive and from the board, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress became interim CEO. The exit followed reports tying Huang to a former executive whom U.S. authorities concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset; Beijing denies that.
We covered it in our Nvidia breaking post. The questions that matter to conservatives have not gone away. What did the company know, how were advanced chips approved for China, and how exposed are ordinary retirement accounts to one firm’s governance? Congress should press those questions without turning them into a show.
After This Week in Review: What to Watch Next
Several dates will test the arguments above. Nvidia reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, its first earnings under new leadership. Meanwhile, the Dec. 11 funding deadline keeps getting closer, and a war powers vote is possible. Next comes the Fed’s Dec. 8-9 meeting, where the size of the hike, not the hike itself, is the open question.
Here is the bottom line from this Week in Review. The Fed can slow inflation, but it cannot fix a budget that spends $2.11 for every dollar it takes in. Until Congress takes that job back, families will keep paying for Washington’s choices through higher prices and higher rates.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index News Release, October 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Producer Price Index News Release, October 2026
- Congressional Budget Office: Monthly Budget Review, October 2026
- U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data: Average Interest Rates on Treasury Securities
- Pew Research Center: A first look at polling performance in 2026 (Nov. 6, 2026)
