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US Rent prices rose 12% last year http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rent-prices-rose-12-last-year-report-says-2011-01-07 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rent-p

US Rent prices rose 12% last year http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rent-prices-rose-12-last-year-report-says-2011-01-07 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rent-prices-rose-12-last-ye... Sugar Prices Hit 30-Year Highs http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703506904575591971478795824.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870350690457559... Gasoline Tops $3 a Gallon for First Time at Christmas http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/3-dollar-gas/19775116/ http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/3-dollar-gas/19775116/ Unless you believe the official US CPI, which excludes food/oil

yummyfajitas 16y ago
CPI doesn't exclude food/oil, only Core CPI does. http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPIAUCSL http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPIAUCSL http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPILFESL http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPILFESL The only major difference between CPI and Core CPI is that CPI is more volatile than Core CPI. This is why, for the purposes of year on year changes, Core CPI is usually reported. If we didn't do this, we'd get headlines like "OMFG, massive inflation, we are all doomed" followed by "OMFG, massive deflation, we are all doomed" 6 months later. Over a period of a year or two, massive inflation x massive deflation = small but stable inflation. A better way to go would be to use moving averages, but that's too complicated to explain to reporters.
- chailatte 16y ago
  Fair enough; a misnomer on my part. However, it's disingenuous to tell the US consumers that the core inflation is 1.2%, when their gas price has doubled (from 2009)
  - joshstaiger 16y ago
    You’re misrepresenting the data. Gas may have been $1.616 in Dec 2008, but it was $4.114 in July 2008, and ~$3 in Feb 2008. http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/23/news/economy/three_dollar_gas/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/23/news/economy/three_dollar_ga... The price is volatile (especially on either side of a financial crisis).
- RickHull 16y ago
  > A better way to go would be to use moving averages, but that's too complicated to explain to reporters. Yes, MA is the first thing that came to mind when reading your big paragraph. It would be a real shame if journalistic incompetency truly is the reason we have not adopted it.
vorg 16y ago
Official inflation rates often aren't a very relevant measure anyway. Better to think about personal inflation rates, depending on one's future expenses and living locations. An unhealthy 50-year-old with high upcoming medical costs has a high "personal" inflation rate, whereas someone surfing every day on a Mexican beach a low one.

yummyfajitas 16y ago

CPI doesn't exclude food/oil, only Core CPI does. http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPIAUCSL http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPIAUCSL http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPILFESL http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPILFESL The only major difference between CPI and Core CPI is that CPI is more volatile than Core CPI. This is why, for the purposes of year on year changes, Core CPI is usually reported. If we didn't do this, we'd get headlines like "OMFG, massive inflation, we are all doomed" followed by "OMFG, massive deflation, we are all doomed" 6 months later. Over a period of a year or two, massive inflation x massive deflation = small but stable inflation. A better way to go would be to use moving averages, but that's too complicated to explain to reporters.

chailatte 16y ago
Fair enough; a misnomer on my part. However, it's disingenuous to tell the US consumers that the core inflation is 1.2%, when their gas price has doubled (from 2009)
- joshstaiger 16y ago
  You’re misrepresenting the data. Gas may have been $1.616 in Dec 2008, but it was $4.114 in July 2008, and ~$3 in Feb 2008. http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/23/news/economy/three_dollar_gas/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/23/news/economy/three_dollar_ga... The price is volatile (especially on either side of a financial crisis).
RickHull 16y ago
> A better way to go would be to use moving averages, but that's too complicated to explain to reporters. Yes, MA is the first thing that came to mind when reading your big paragraph. It would be a real shame if journalistic incompetency truly is the reason we have not adopted it.

vorg 16y ago

Official inflation rates often aren't a very relevant measure anyway. Better to think about personal inflation rates, depending on one's future expenses and living locations. An unhealthy 50-year-old with high upcoming medical costs has a high "personal" inflation rate, whereas someone surfing every day on a Mexican beach a low one.