Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

US consumer prices tick up just 0.1 percent last month despite big gain in energy costs
Associated Press ^ | 20 Feb 14 | CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER

Posted on 02/20/2014 8:11:42 AM PST by xzins

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-168 next last
To: TurboZamboni

I see you’re in MN. Can you afford to cook the bacon you found on sale? What with propane costs and this insane winter?


41 posted on 02/20/2014 11:55:47 AM PST by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes
I'm not on propane. I have natural gas.

Especially after eating bacon.

42 posted on 02/20/2014 11:58:03 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad and lived with his parents .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: TurboZamboni

LOL.

Hey, at least you don’t have to rely on a solar cooker up there.


43 posted on 02/20/2014 11:59:08 AM PST by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: xzins
Ok, let's back up. Your comment:

In the meantime, food has doubled, but it doesn’t get counted, and as Organic Panic has pointed out, the government counts “packages” for so many items, and the manufacturers make the packages smaller but keep the price the same. IIRC, I had to get a bag of sugar recently, and the old 5 pounder is now a 4 pounder....but, I’m just a tin foil whiner, that’s not a price increase. /sarc

fundamentally is incorrect.
44 posted on 02/20/2014 12:04:37 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: 1rudeboy

Are you saying that chuck roast wasn’t 2.89 and now is 4.89 2 short years later? Are you saying that the 5 pound bag wasn’t smaller?


45 posted on 02/20/2014 12:07:26 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: xzins
What I'm saying is, is that a pound of meat is a pound of meat, and a dozen eggs is a dozen eggs with regard to the calculation of the CPI.

You are saying that a producer shrinking the size of its package affects the above, and that is incorrect. Just as the assertion that consumers substituting chicken for beef when beef gets too expensive affects the calculation of the CPI is incorrect.

46 posted on 02/20/2014 12:12:20 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: 1rudeboy

We’re talking meat and eggs when organic panic was talking packaged items like ice cream.


47 posted on 02/20/2014 12:25:24 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: xzins

And that comment fundamentally was incorrect, also . . . just as your comment was.


48 posted on 02/20/2014 12:27:55 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: 1rudeboy

Did you have a favorite?


49 posted on 02/20/2014 12:31:01 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: xzins
Definitely. Yours.

Dense. Like a neutron star.

50 posted on 02/20/2014 12:32:12 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: 1rudeboy

Which one?


51 posted on 02/20/2014 12:34:07 PM PST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: xzins

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/01/is-the-us-government-wildly-understating-the-inflation-rate-no-it-isnt/

That’s by Jim Pethokoukis a year ago. What’s hitting us in the eyes is the inflation in food and energy which we’re most sensitive to. It’s a pretty good explanation, but those families that are marginal are facing higher costs are the largest parts of their budgets outside of housing itself.


52 posted on 02/20/2014 12:35:58 PM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: xzins

I refer you to my comment #44.


53 posted on 02/20/2014 12:36:06 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: xzins

consumer prices?

not counting food and energy?

How would you not count those?


54 posted on 02/20/2014 12:36:18 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: xzins

I can make those clothes last a little longer. I can keep that car a few years longers. I can stop travelling. But I have to pay for energy. This is all a fraud.


55 posted on 02/20/2014 1:19:57 PM PST by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: xzins

Time for some conversions, eh?

How to make a Rocket Heater out of two gas bottles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofJYVmrNNuU

Rocket Stove Heater Part 1 of 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Shk4NFNo3Y

WORKSHOP ROCKET STOVE HEATER part1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBWSNjvO4cc

#322 Lab DONE! Rocket Stove Mass Heater begins!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrJ8hdfzNg&index=9&list=PLyRBSIGadacAkctGskHlAwM4bL8pdOzeN

Home made gas bottle wood burning stove test 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4m2CWO8NlM

How to make a wood burning stove DIY project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g44xtJ0AhXg


56 posted on 02/20/2014 1:34:07 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins; 1010RD; Organic Panic
As I understand it, food is “volatile”, so they don’t count food in the new improved cpi with the weight it used to have.

In the meantime, food has doubled, but it doesn’t get counted, and as Organic Panic has pointed out, the government counts “packages” for so many items, and the manufacturers make the packages smaller but keep the price the same. IIRC, I had to get a bag of sugar recently, and the old 5 pounder is now a 4 pounder....but, I’m just a tin foil whiner, that’s not a price increase. /sarc


When the news or the Fed cites the CPI, they are citing core inflation.

Core inflation has had the cost of food and energy removed in order to smooth out the CPI or remove volatility. This removal of volatility assumes the prices goes up and down not up and up and up.

Of course this means core inflation does not represent inflation as it is experienced by the general population.

In addition core inflation is used to evaluate how well the fed is doing in one of its mandates - stable prices. Isn't that convenient ?

The CPI has been changed from reflecting the cost of a set standard of living to reflecting the cost of a declining one. The tools used to achieve this include weighting and the chained CPI.

So if you aren't worried about the price of the essentials of energy and food, and about maintaining a set standard of living the CPI says every thing is hunky dory.

OTH if you want to see what the CPI would be if measured as it was before 'enhancements' seriously affected it, look at the blue line on the chart below.




57 posted on 02/20/2014 2:38:30 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

RE:consumer prices?

not counting food and energy?

How would you not count those?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3125076/posts?page=57#57


58 posted on 02/20/2014 2:42:21 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: khelus

Love that phony graph!


59 posted on 02/20/2014 3:08:41 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (Science is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: xzins

Chained CPI calculates inflation based on moving goal posts.

Here is a rough example of how the concept works:

Cost of one widget
Jan 10.00
Feb 10.10
Mar 10.20
Apr 10.30
May 10.40
Jun 10.50

non chained inflation in Jan $
Jan
Feb .01 .10/10.00
Mar .02 .20/10.00
Apr .03 .30/10.00
May .04 .40/10.00
Jun .05 .50/10.00
In June the price of one widget has increased by .05 or 5%

chained inflation, inflation is chained to the prior month
Jan
Feb .01 .10/10.00
Mar .01 .10/10.10
Apr .01 .10/10.20
May .01 .10/10.30
Jun .01 .10/10.40
In June the price of one widget has increased by .01 or 1%

This concept allows the government to suppress the COLA.


60 posted on 02/20/2014 3:09:09 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-168 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson