Posted on 02/20/2014 8:11:42 AM PST by xzins
U.S. consumer prices barely rose last month as a sharp increase in energy costs was offset by cheaper clothing, cars and air fares. The figures indicate inflation remains mild.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index rose just 0.1 percent in January, down from a 0.2 percent gain in December. Prices have risen 1.6 percent in the past 12 months. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices also rose just 0.1 percent last month and 1.6 percent in the past year.
The year-over-year increase in core prices was the smallest in seven months.
The "mild uptick ... confirms the fact that inflationary pressures remain well contained," Martin Schwerdtfeger, an economist at TD Bank, said in a note to clients.
(Excerpt) Read more at newser.com ...
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?
Especially after eating bacon.
LOL.
Hey, at least you don’t have to rely on a solar cooker up there.
In the meantime, food has doubled, but it doesnt 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, Im just a tin foil whiner, thats not a price increase. /sarcfundamentally is incorrect.
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?
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.
We’re talking meat and eggs when organic panic was talking packaged items like ice cream.
And that comment fundamentally was incorrect, also . . . just as your comment was.
Did you have a favorite?
Dense. Like a neutron star.
Which one?
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.
I refer you to my comment #44.
consumer prices?
not counting food and energy?
How would you not count those?
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.
Time for some conversions, eh?
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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
Love that phony graph!
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.
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