Inflation is easier to read when you separate shocks from persistence. Some price moves are abrupt one-offs. Others feed into wages, contracts and expectations. Markets care far more about the persistent layer. That distinction changes how central banks react and how long investors should care about the move. Example: An energy spike matters differently if it fades quickly than if it seeps into services and wage bargaining. The mistake is treating every CPI surprise as the same inflation story wearing a different headline. That is usually where the edge is: not in the vocabulary, but in the structure underneath it.