The U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 3.3 percent since last July according to this month’s BLS report, a rate that could herald higher inflation in the future. PPI measures the total cost of goods and services to businesses, rather than to consumers. A high PPI means that input costs for producers are increasing, a situation that usually leads to higher prices for consumers (and thus higher inflation) in the future. When PPI increases faster than inflation, as it did in July, business costs are increasing faster than prices, denting profits. The July increase is the highest since June...