Month: November 2017

DNC Lawyer Scrambles To Block Evidence From Hidden Laptop Tied To Wasserman Schultz

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

A lawyer for former DNC IT staffer Imran Awan is scrambling to block evidence found on a hidden laptop which may contain proof of a massive spy ring operating at the highest levels of Congress, in what may be the largest breach of National Security in U.S. history.

Awan, a Pakistani national, worked for dozens of Democratic members of Congress along with his wife, two brothers and a friend. Following the publication of DNC emails by WikiLeaks in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Congressional investigators discovered that the Awans had a secret server being housed by the House Democratic Caucus backed up to an offsite Dropbox account.

“For members to say their data was not compromised is simply inaccurate. They had access to all the data including all emails. Imran Awan is the walking example of an insider threat, a criminal actor who had access to everything,” –Daily Caller

According to a briefing, "all five of the shared employees system administrators collectively logged onto the [House Democratic] Caucus system 5,735 times, or an average of 27 times per day,” despite only one of them being authorized to do so.

The Awans were banned from the House IT network on February 2, 2017 after being named in a criminal investigation – however they continued to work in the building for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz until Imran Awan's arrest at Dulles Airport trying to flee the country in late July. Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were charged with conspiracy and bank fraud in relation to a real estate transaction.

The laptop in question was tucked away in a tiny room formerly used as a phone booth on the second floor of the Rayburn House Office Building late one night in March, only to be found by Capitol Police just after midnight on April 6, 2017 along with notebooks marked 'attorney client privilege,' letters addressed to the US Attorney of DC regarding Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and several forms of identification. Based on the contents of the backpack, some believe Awan wanted the laptop to be found.

Attorney-Client Privilege

Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller, who has been tracking the Awan case, reports that Awan's attorney Chris Gowen – a former aide to Hillary Clinton, is seeking to block the laptop evidence by arguing the 'attorney client privilege' note attached to the notebook found with the laptop covers the contents of the hard drive, according to court papers filed Tuesday.

Via the Daily Caller:

"Chris Gowen, Awan’s attorney, said at the last hearing: “We do expect there being an attorney-client privilege issue in this case… What occurred is a backpack from my client was found, he was trying to get a better signal, there was a note that said attorney client privilege and a hard drive. We feel very strongly about this.”

A Capitol Police report reveals the following items were found in the backpack:

#1 a Pakistani ID card with the name Mohommed Ashraf Awan
#2 a copy – not original – of a driver’s license with name Imran Awan
#3 a copy (front and back) of his congressional ID
#4 an Apple laptop with the homescreen initials ‘RepDWS’
#5 composition notebooks with notes handwritten saying ‘attorney client privilege’ and possibly discussing case details below
#6 loose letters addressed to US Attorney of DC discussing the apparent owner of the bag being investigated.

As Rosiak points out, it is unclear how the handwritten note saying "attorney client privilege" could be construed to cover a hard drive, rather than the pages of [the] notebook it was contained on.

Andrew McCarthy, a former chief assistant U.S. attorney who has followed the case, said “The A/C (attorney-client) privilege only applies to communications between the client and lawyer that are for the purpose of seeking legal advice and that are intended by both parties to be kept confidential… Moreover, asserting that something is A/C protected does not make it so. You still have to show that the material in question constitutes communications strictly between the lawyer and client that were for the purpose of seeking legal advice.

 

“If I give my lawyer my bank records and ask him if they show evidence of a crime, the bank records do not become A/C-privileged — only his advice to me would be A/C-privileged. And if I stuck a sign on my bank records that said ‘A/C-privileged documents,’ that would not make them A/C-privileged documents,” he told The Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday." -Daily Caller

Debbie Downer

In May of 2016, Debbie Wasserman Schulz – an employer and personal friend of Awan – spent several minutes browbeating the Chief of DC Capitol Police at a budget meeting, claiming the laptop should be given back since it was hers and threatening 'consequences' if it wasn't returned.

#DebbieWassermanSchultz threatens DC Police Chief over not returning Arwan Bros laptop. "there will be consequences" https://t.co/2phDMnvWq5 http://pic.twitter.com/e2wkBJSaim

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) May 25, 2017

Of Note

The Awan brothers were managing computers for members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence – a group with top secret clearance which is looking into Russian election interference right now.

Also of note

The brothers were "shared employees," hired by multiple Democrats for IT work whenever it was needed – so they floated all over the place doing all sorts of work on House members computers. Democrats Juaquin Castro, Cedric Richmond, Andre Carson, Jackie Speier, Tammy Duckworth, and Louis Frankel all employed the Awans.

Information Brokers? 

Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on Fox Business Network in late July where he dropped a bombshell: not only did the Awans had access to the emails of every member of Congress, Imran Awan reportedly sold information to still unknown parties, which the FBI is currently investigating.

Napolitano: He was arrested for some financial crime – that's the tip of the iceberg. The real allegation against him is that he had access to the emails of every member of congress and he sold what he found in there. What did he sell, and to whom did he sell it? That's what the FBI wants to know. This may be a very, very serious national security situation.

 

Varney: Wait a second, he was the IT worker along with his two Pakistani brothers, for DWS, and other Democrats in the House – and the theory is that he got access to all of their secrets or whatever, and sold some?

 

Napolitano: Yes, and this was at the time that Congresswoman Schultz was also the chair of the Democratic National Committee. So at this point I don't believe they know what he sold, and to whom he sold it – but they do know what he had access to, which is virtually everything in the House of representatives, which would include classified material in the House intelligence committee.

 

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer went even further – claiming that the Awan brothers were linked to the Muslim Brotherhood while working for Democrat Congressman Andre Carson, a report reinforced by Frontpage Magazine:

As Frontpage reported in February:

The office of Andre Carson, the second Muslim in Congress, had employed Imran Awan. As did the offices of Jackie Speier and Debbie Wasserman Schultz; to whom the letter had been addressed.

 

Carson is the second Muslim in Congress and the first Muslim on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and, more critically, is the ranking member on its Emerging Threats Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Department of Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture Subcommittee.

 

The Emerging Threats Subcommittee, of which Carson is a ranking member, is responsible for much of counterterrorism oversight. It is the worst possible place for a man with Carson’s credentials.

 

Carson had inherited his grandmother’s seat and exploited it to promote a radical Islamist agenda. He has interfaced with a laundry list of Islamist groups from CAIR to ISNA to ICNA to MPAC. Islamists have funded Carson’s career to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. The Center for Security Policy has put together a dossier of Carson’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is the parent organization of many key Islamic terror groups posing a threat to our national security including Al Qaeda and Hamas.

 

Andre Carson shared the stage at a CAIR banquet with Sirraj Wahaj: an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing who had once declared,” You don’t get involved in politics because it’s the American thing to do. You get involved in politics because politics are a weapon to use in the cause of Islam.” CAIR itself had been named an unindicted co-conspirator in terror finance.

Immunity for Hina?

In September, it was reported that Hina Alvi – Imran Awan's wife, had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to return to the U.S. from Pakistan to face conspiracy and bank fraud charges.

Alvi and her children fled to the safety of Pakistan in early 2017, so her voluntary return – which was structured with an arrest to be made "not in front of her children" is significant. Upon her return to the United States, Hina was arraigned on four felony counts of bank fraud and handed over her U.S. passport to prosecutors.

Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) says that Alvi's return may be part of a broader immunity deal with prosecutors in return for a "significant" and "pretty disturbing" story about Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

“I don’t want to talk out of school here but I think you're going to see some revelations that are going to be pretty profound.  The fact that this wife is coming back from Pakistan and is willing to face charges, as it were, I think there is a good chance she is going to reach some type of immunity to tell a larger story here that is going to be pretty disturbing to the American people.”

 

"I would just predict that this is going to be a very significant story and people should fasten their seat belts on this one."

Despite the volumes of evidence stacking up against the former DNC IT staffers, Debbie Wasserman Schultz claims the entire investigation of the Awans is nothing more than Islamophobia.

*  *  *

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Venezuela Arrests Former Oil Minister And Ex-Head Of PDVSA

As OPEC is set to celebrate the extension of the cartel’s oil production cut for another year in Vienna, Venezuela former-oil minister and the former head of the now defaulted state energy company PDVSA have no reasons to celebrate following their overnight arrests in Venezuela.

Taking a page out of the Saudi “anti-corruption” playbook, Reuters reports citing two sources that Venezuelan authorities detained former Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino and former state oil company PDVSA president Nelson Martinez overnight as a part of a broad anti-corruption probe.

Del Pino, a prolific user of Twitter, last tweeted on November 27, seemingly in good spirits.

It was not immediately clear why the two men were detained. One Reuters source said it appeared they had been held for questioning.

As reported previously, the Maduro regime has been cracking down on PDVSA personnel, scapegoating the company for the nation’s energy woes, and replacing company professionals with members of the military in what appears to be a slow-motion military coup which preserves army control of Venezuela’s biggest asset.

State prosecutor Tarek Saab was due to hold a press conference to announce new arrests later on Thursday.

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North Korea Releases Photos Of ICBM Capable Of Striking The US

North Korea alarmed the international community on Tuesday when, after a two-month lull, it fired a Hwasong-15 ICBM into the waters west of Japan. State media touted the launch as its most powerful missile yet. Judging by the missile’s peak height reached during its flight, experts say the North now has the capacity to strike nearly any location in the Continental US. Now, the North's state media released dozens of photos and a video after Wednesday’s launch of the new Hwasong-15 missile, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared had “finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force”.  The photos show Kim Jong-un personally overseeing the launch of the missile, an obvious source of national pride.

Pyongyang claimed the Hwasong-15 reached an altitude of around 4,475 kilometers and flew 950 kilometers during its flight, which lasted 53 minutes.

Kim Jong-un was shown in delight as the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15's test was successfully launched, in these photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang November 30, 2017.

Pyongyang announced in a statement read on North Korean state TV that the missile was a Hwasong-15. “Tipped with super-large heavy warhead,” the missile is “capable of striking the whole mainland of the US.”.

“After watching the successful launch of the new type ICBM Hwasong-15, Kim declared with pride that now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power,” it added.

The aim of the missile is solely “to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country from the US imperialists’ nuclear blackmail policy and nuclear threat,” according to Pyongyang.

If the missile was indeed a Hwasong-15, it would mean a new development for North Korea. The other launches that took place in 2017 were either claimed to be the older Hwasong-14 ICBM, or the intermediate range (IRBM) Hwasong-12.

Russia condemned Wednesday’s launch of the Hwasong-15, calling it “a provocative act that triggers further escalation and moves us further away from crisis settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. “We do condemn the launch and hope all the parties will exercise restraint which is so much needed to prevent the situation in the Korean peninsula from going the worst way.”

In a press conference organized to respond to the launch, President Donald Trump described it as “a situation that we will handle,” saying that it won’t change his approach to the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. “I will only tell you that we will take care of it,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia repeated his pleas for North Korea to stop the tests and called on the US and South Korea to cancel large-scale military maneuvers scheduled for December.

* * *

According to Reuters, the images of the rockets showed stronger engines and a larger design that likely puts Kim Jong Un closer to his goal of being able to deliver a nuclear warhead to a target anywhere in the world, though the missiles still lack accuracy.

“North Korea is continuing to pursue its ICBM in a methodical and pragmatic manner, making progress in incremental steps,” said Joseph Bermudez from 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project. U.S. officials noted, however, that North Korea has not proved it has an accurate guidance system for an ICBM or a capable re-entry vehicle.

The missile’s large size was immediately apparent in the photos, which analysts said could provide for a more powerful propulsion system.

“This is a very big missile,” Michael Duitsman, a research associate at the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, said in an analysis posted to Twitter. “And I don’t mean ‘Big for North Korea.’ Only a few countries can produce missiles of this size, and North Korea just joined the club.”

One US intelligence official said the Hwasong-15 appears to have a more powerful North Korean solid-fuel propulsion system, especially in its second-stage rocket. A solid-fuel system for an ICBM would be a significant development and could allow the North Koreans to transport and launch a missile more quickly, compared to a liquid-fuel system that requires lengthy preparation. The photos appeared to show the missile with at least two large nozzles on its first stage, instead of the one large and several smaller nozzles on the Hwasong-14.

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The ECB Comes Clean On Rising Rates and the Coming Systemic Reset

Remember how the Fed, ECB and others all claimed ZIRP and QE were about generating economic growth, making mortgages more affordable, and helping consumers?

Well, that was a gigantic lie. The truth is that every major policy employed by Central Banks since 2008 have been about one thing…

Maintaining the bond bubble.

Governments around the world have used the bubble in bonds to finance their bloated budgets. If interest rates were anywhere NEAR normal levels, most countries would lurch towards default in a matter of weeks.

If you think this is conspiracy theory, consider that the European Central Bank openly admitted this in its semi-annual Financial Stability Review this week:

Even so, [the ECB] said that “higher interest rates may trigger concerns about sovereigns’ debt-servicing capacity,” and noted that “distrust in mainstream political parties continues to rise, leading to fragmentation of the political landscape away from the established consensus.”

Source: Bloomberg.

In plain speak, the ECB is admitting here that if rates were to rise, the financial world would quickly realize that most countries couldn’t finance their debt payments. Indeed, the five largest economies in the world are all near or above Debt to GDP levels of 100%

As I explained in my bestseller, The Everything Bubble: the Endgame For Central Bank Policy, the bubble in bonds is what finances this entire mess. It's what lets the political class continue to spend money the government doesn't have. And it's why the entire financial system is now in a bubble.

Remember, sovereign bonds are the bedrock for the current fiat-based financial system, so when they go into a bubble, EVERYTHING goes into a bubble, as all risk assets adjust to ridiculously cheap interest rates.

This is why I coined the term The Everything Bubble in 2014. It’s also why I wrote a book on this issue as well as what’s coming down the pike: because when this bubble bursts (as all bubbles do) the policies Central Banks employ will make those from 2008-2015 look like a cakewalk.

We are putting together an Executive Summary outlining all of these issues as well as what’s to come when The Everything Bubble bursts.

It will be available exclusively to our clients. If you’d like to have a copy delivered to your inbox when it’s completed, you can join the wait-list here:

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Best Regards
Graham Summers

Chief Market Strategist

Phoenix Capital Research

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Remember That Time The New York Times Told the President to Read Reason?

“The libertarians at Reason magazine have a fine summation of why the wall won’t work. If only Mr. Trump would read it,” sighed The New York Times in an unsigned editorial this spring. The editorial board was urging the president (and Times readers) to check out Reason‘s cover story containing the “legal, practical, economic, and moral case against Trump’s border barrier.”

Not so long ago, it would have been a complete shock to find The New York Times sending anyone to check out Reason. But nowadays it’s almost normal, thanks to a growing acknowledgment that libertarian voices are sounding pretty good against the stale cacophony of the partisan debate—and Reason staffers’ overall badassery. (Which you can support with your generous webathon donations!)

Why look! Just today the Times ran this barn burner from Associate Editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown on the fall of Matt Lauer:

We’re rightfully concerned about how the internet gives corporations more opportunities to exert power over consumers, but we talk far less about the flip side: We have more power over companies now, too. For better or worse, we’ve all become remarkably effective at mobilizing it to our own causes.

In contrast, look at Washington. If either Representative John Conyers Jr. or Senator Al Franken were in today’s corporate world, they’d be long gone. And just imagine if Roy Moore was a candidate for a C-suite job this month. He’d have no shot.

Instead, at least so far, these politicians have been protected, and whatever happens to them, it’s clear that the political system is structured to insulate men like them from the consequences of their actions and keep their accusers quiet….

As we observe and adjust to the sociosexual storm we’re all in, let’s appreciate the powers and paradigms making it possible: feminism, but also free markets.

Earlier this month, I argued in the Sunday Review that our terrible tax system is the root of our political dysfunction:

People hate taxes because they hate to be pushed around. But politicians love taxes because it’s their job to push people around, and taxes are a powerful tool to do just that. A “tax return you can fill out on the back of a postcard” — long promised by the Republican Party — would essentially be a decision by the political class to unilaterally disarm itself.

Associate Editor Robby Soave has defended teen texters:

By all means, let’s empower teachers to confront harassment and refer troubled teenagers to mental health professionals. But we don’t need to broadly criminalize teen cruelty to do that. Nor should we continue down the path of pretending that the First Amendment’s ironclad protection of hateful expression is voided whenever someone says (or texts) something that makes us squirm.

Features Editor Peter Suderman has been a repeat guest, generally embroidering on the topic of the GOP’s failures on health care reform: But one of his opinion contributions in particular drew this irate response from one of his neighbors on the page:

Obviously, it’s not all sunshine and kumbaya when it comes to Reason and the Times. Their editorial line and our diverge in important ways. Not to mention that the Times continues to have trouble classifying us: In the paper’s online left-and-right reaction roundup feature, Reasoners (while always correctly identified as libertarians) have been filed under both right (Jacob Sullum on background checks), and center (me on free speech for fascists).

Reason pulls no punches when it comes to our inky-fingered brothers. You may recall in 2015 when Reason TV’s Jim Epstein took on the Times’ reporting about labor practices in Korean nail salons. (He wound up eliciting a response from the public editor, who agreed with several of Epstein’s criticisms.)

As the Times Magazine famously asked in 2014: “Has the Libertarian Moment Finally Arrived?” I’m not sure I’d go that far, but the Overton Window certainly does seem to have opened up a bit in our direction.

And it’s surely a good thing if New York Times readers occasionally hear from Reason staffers about the issues of the day, regardless of whether they love us or hate us. A libertarian point of view is too often a rarity on the opinion pages of major newspapers (R.I.P. John Tierney’s op-ed slot) and we’re delighted that editors and readers at the Times are more open to Reason‘s voices than every before.

If you like seeing your pals from Reason in the pages of The New York Times, why not hit us with a bitcoin, baby? (Well, a smidge of a bitcoin anyway.) Or dollars. We definitely also take dollars.

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A.M. Links: Matt Lauer Says He’s ‘Soul Searching’ After Being Fired for Sexual Misconduct, British Ambassador Blasts Trump for Anti-Muslim Tweets

  • “Britain’s ambassador to the United States has conveyed the government’s concerns to the White House over Donald Trump’s promotion on Twitter of material created by far right group Britain First.”
  • Matt Lauer says that he is “sorry” and that he is “soul searching” after being fired from NBC over allegations of sexual misconduct.
  • Roy Moore says a conspiracy of “liberals, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and socialists” are to blame for the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him.
  • A fifth woman has accused Sen. Al Franken of sexual misconduct.
  • Senate Republicans remain divided over the GOP tax plan.
  • Investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller have reportedly interviewed Jared Kushner about the meeting between Kushner, Michael T. Flynn, and Russian Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to sign up for Reason’s daily updates for more content.

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Cryptos Are Crashing Again

It's a bloodbath in cryptocurrency markets this morning…

 

Having bounced overnight to over $10,600, Bitcoin prices are tumbling once again as we approach the US equity market open…

 

Ethereum is down over 20%…

While there is no immediate catalyst, we note that ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio  – ever eager to talk citizens away from decentralized 'anything' – warned about the risks of investing in bitcoin at current valuations.

Speaking to CNBC, Vitor Constancio said developments in bitcoin's price make it "a speculative asset by definition," continuing: "Investors are taking that risk of buying at such high prices."

Even so, Constancio told CNBC that the ECB is not in a position to regulate the cryptocurrency, saying, "We don't have responsibility or even instruments that point to particular prices of particular assets, that is certainly not the role of central banks."

His comments echo those of ECB president Mario Draghi, who in September indicated that the central bank does not have the authority to regulate cryptocurrencies.

"It would actually not be in our powers to prohibit and regulate" bitcoin and other digital currencies, he said at the time.

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Trump Sparks Outrage In UK With “Truculent Tweet” To Theresa May After Retweeting Far-Right Videos

President Trump sparked outrage among Britain’s political establishment on Thursday with a sharp rebuke on Twitter of Prime Minister Theresa May on Twitter after she criticized him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos. Following Trump’s condemnation by British politicians who lashed out at the US president for sharing videos originally posted by a leader of a British far-right fringe group, in an unprecedented attack on Theresa May, Trump replied with what Reuters dubbed an “unrepentant message”:

“Theresa @theresamay, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine,” he tweeted.

Trump initially addressed his tweet to a Twitter handle that was not May‘s, though he later retweeted to the British leader’s correct account.

Trump truculent response prompted a new round of indignation and anger in Britain, where there have been several major Islamist militant attacks this year, with one minister describing Trump’s tweets as “alarming and despairing”. London’s Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, said May should withdraw an offer of a state visit to Britain which has already been extended. 

Trump provoked the initial wave of anger and disgust from politicians in Britain and human rights groups in the United States when he shared anti-Muslim videos posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of the group Britain First. Fransen, who was convicted this month of abusing a Muslim woman and whose group wants to ban Islam, is facing further criminal charges of racially aggravated harassment. The videos shared by Trump purported to show a group of people who were Muslims beating a teenage boy to death, battering a boy on crutches and destroying a Christian statue.

May criticized him, her spokesman saying: “It is wrong for the president to have done this.” Shortly after, May told reporters in Amman, that “the fact that we work together does not mean that we’re afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong, and be very clear with them. And I‘m very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.”

Others piled on: “We have been clear: President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet videos by far-right group Britain First,” Home Secretary (interior minister) Amber Rudd told parliament.

Brendan Cox, the husband of lawmaker Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016 by a far-right extremist and Justin Welby, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, were among those expressing outrage at Trump’s latest tweet.

Lawmakers from the across the political divide were also united in condemnation.

“By sharing it, he is either a racist, incompetent or unthinking, or all three,” opposition Labour lawmaker Stephen Doughty said. Britain’s Middle East minister Alistair Burt tweeted: “The White House tweets are both alarming and despairing tonight. This is so not where the world needs to go.”

The Dutch embassy in Washington issued a Twitter comment on one of them, which Fransen had described as showing a “Muslim migrant” beating up a boy. “@realDonald Trump Facts do matter. The perpetrator of the violent act in this video was born and raised in the Netherlands,” the embassy said. “He received and completed his sentence under Dutch law.”

May angered Trump’s many critics in Britain then by extending an invitation to make a state visit to Britain with all the pomp and pageantry it brings including a formal banquet with Queen Elizabeth. Despite repeated calls from opposition lawmakers to cancel this, Rudd said the invitation still stood although a timing had not been agreed. She also said the close U.S.-British relationship which allowed the intelligence agencies to share information was vital and had saved lives.

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Fed’s Most-Watched Inflation Indicator Ticks Up In October – Still Well Below Mandate

The Fed's most-watched inflation indicator – Core PCE – has been on a downward trend since short-term peaking in January (and yet the need to keep hiking rates has remained). However, October's 1.4% rise (as expected) offers some hope to Janet, Jay, and their friends that an inflection point has been reached in the transitory disinflationary spiral.

As Bloomberg notes, the central bank’s preferred price gauge, excluding food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in October from the prior month.

September’s monthly gain was revised upward to 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent, making for the fastest consecutive increases since January and February.

Including all items, prices rose 1.6 percent from a year earlier following an upwardly revised 1.7 percent; the so-called core measure was up 1.4 percent for a second month.

While the latest figures indicate progress toward the Fed’s 2 percent goal, inflation remains below target on an annual basis, as it has for most of the past five years.

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