CPI Preview: Likely A Miss But Mostly Irrelevant

Amid a complete halt of all government-compiled economic data now stretching into its 4th week, tomorrow we will get the only notable and actionable macro update of note, the September CPI, a print which was supposed to originally be revealed on Oct 15 but would have been indefinitely delayed had the White House not intervened with a demand that the BLS recall staff and figure out what the number is and report it tomorrow at 8:30am (just days before the FOMC meeting, where Powell is strongly advised by Trump to cut rates again now that the inflation target is 3% or higher). Which is also why one can guess what the number will be (spoiler alert: it will not be a beat). Tomorrow's CPI report is also necessary for calculating next yearʼs Social Security payments, but that is most certainly not the reason why Trump scrambled the BLS bean counters to goal seek a number to his liking. 

So assuming the numbers weren't rigged, what would they be?