Consumer prices rise sharply in February

Market Watch ^ | March 16, 2012 | Jeffry Bartash

[MulberryDraw]

Cost of gas jumps 6% to mark biggest increase in over two years

The consumer price index jumped 0.4% last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday. That was slightly below the 0.5% increase forecast by a MarketWatch survey of economists.

The higher cost of consumption last month easily outstripped a 0.1% gain in hourly pay for U.S. workers. As a result, inflation-adjusted earnings fell 0.3% in February to mark the second straight decline.

[snip]

Over the past 12 months, consumer prices have risen an unadjusted 2.9%, unchanged from January.

[MulberryDraw]

The 2.9% is above the Fed's 2% target. Will the Fed have to raise rates before the election?

[AU72]

I thought the Cheney Economic Manipulation Machine was shut down?

[hoosierham]

Not only is gasoline again a budget-buster for many,food prices are soaring.Common items like soup,bread,and cookies are up 10 to 20% from last year in the discount stores!

[MulberryDraw]

The article said that food was unchanged in February. However, over the past 12 months food cost has risen 3.9%.

http://bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

[CitizenUSA]

2.9% eh? Well, don’t ask me how they come up with that, because everything I need for daily life, like fuel and food, is going up far faster than 2.9% per year. Big screen TV prices are probably deflating, but I can’t eat ‘em and don’t buy a new one every month.

I use my custom Spam index to estimate inflation. Three years ago, I could get a can of Spam for $2. Now they run almost $3. That, my FRiend, is a whole lot of infation. If I can’t eat or drive to/from work, what good do lower housing and appliance prices do for me? Not much.

[skeeter]

Looks like the stars are aligning against the jug eared crypto tyrant.

[Freddd]

And that is for just one month.

Now add up all the months...and the months to come.

[NEMDF]

The paper napkins I get were up 20% last week. I try to buy most things on sale, but those that are not on sale, are definitely increasing in price, and not just a few cents here and there.

[TomGuy]

I was at Walmart yesterday and noticed that the 4-pac of their Yogart had jumped from $1.58 to $1.88 since I last bought some about 6 months ago.

That is a 19% increase.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Big screen TV prices are probably deflating, but I can’t eat ‘em and don’t buy a new one every month.

But if a big screen TV goes down from $3,000 to $2,500 during the same period of time that $2,500 worth of food and gasoline goes up in price to $3,000, the government tells me there is zero net inflation...so I should shut up and be happy to live in Obama's Workers Paradise.

And now I'm confused. :)

[Buckeye McFrog]

*2.8888% when adjusted for the free birth control

[hoosierham]

Not only is gasoline again a budget-buster for many,food prices are soaring.Common items like soup,bread,and cookies are up 10 to 20% from last year in the discount stores!

[MNDude]

I believe our government is printing about 7% of our economy per year. I’m surprised it isn’t higher.

[C19fan]

I don’t think the Fed cares about the target range for inflation. I bet they don’t mind moderate inflation as a way to decrease the real burden of the debt in the country.

[John W]

And, this just in-U.S. stocks struggled to regain Friday’s opening rise after a first reading of U.S. consumer confidence in March unexpectedly fell.

They expected consumers to believe the pure and utter manure they’d been shoveling on behalf of The One and, unexpectedly, they didn’t.

[John W]

Another source-BIG miss on consumer confidence caused the Dow to drop around 65 points. It was already trading lower and is now off 0.9%

[MrB]

This is fuel price driven.

They may have an inflation target and would have hit it with monetary policy if it weren’t for the huge spike in transporation costs.

[MrB]

I was enraged yesterday, though, when it was released that they were going to draw down the strategic reserves blatantly to support 0bama’s re-election,

and the Brits agreed to cooperate.

[MulberryDraw]

I see they are blaming gas prices for the drop in consumer confidence (article at the link below) but a number of posts in this thread are pointing to food prices.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-struggle-after-fall-in-confidence-data-2012-03-16?link=MW_home_latest_news

[John W]

I copied and saved what a freeper said yesterday about that since it made so much sense-

Why would Britain with gas at $12 a gallon release “strategic reserves” to get US gas below $4 a gallon?

Is $4 a gallon US gas a strategic crisis to Britain?

Or is obama’s reelection a strategic crisis to both the socialist dupe and the marxist clown? and thus worth pissing off our NATIONAL STRATEGIC oil reserves ....