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Food and energy are excluded from the “core” rate because they are considered too volatile.

Of course. But they are included in the headline number. Some people here think the Fed ignores food and energy. That's stupid. You can get inflation numbers with food and fuel or ex-food or ex-energy. Removing the most volatile components tells us with what the real underlying trends are. The Fed adjusts interest rates for long term impact. Some here think they should move interest rates with the price of a barrel of oil. Doing so would have no impact on prices but would make a mess of the markets. Fortunately, the people who manage interest rates are smart enough to ignore these folks.

“Fortunately, the people who manage interest rates are smart enough to ignore these folks.”

A very strange statement. Would you trust the government or a cartel (the Fed) to set the prices of energy, food, labor, healthcare, etc? Or would you prefer the free market set the prices of these things? History has shown that socialism fails because centrally planned economies cannot factor in all the variables to price things correctly, the way free markets can.

What do you think the price of money is? It is called “interest rates”. Interest rates should be set by the free market, as they were before the Fed.

In addition to its central planning gig, the fed’s other main job is to “sell” the $US by understating inflation. Core or Headline, it doesn’t matter, the published inflation rates are far below reality.