Yeah, especially the food:
Inflation is starting to really mean something when it comes to food and energy. The government stats on inflation conveniently omit food and energy when reporting things like the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
[. . .]
It would be interesting to see if we could eliminate all the government subsidies and bad policy. What would our food really cost if the unfettered free market set the price? One thing is for sure, on our current path, prices aren’t going down.
The inflation that matters is not the overall number but the inflation that touches the things you buy most -- and not counting food and energy is kind of an obvious way to tilt the game . . .
. . . which the government does because it so often is part of the problem.
On energy, for example:
For evidence, all you need to do is look at the arduous debate over things like the Keystone Pipeline ($CL_F). Environmentalists, who mostly caucus with Democrats have held it up. The EPA, OSHA and other government agencies are writing all kinds of expensive rules and regulations to make exploration, refining, and distribution of energy products cost more. That gets passed on to consumers.
Thank goodness for things like fracking ($NG_F), without it we might see even higher prices.
And food:
The recent farm bill that passed was chock full of subsidies for corporate farmers. A goody bag of money from the government that influences what farmers plant, and how much of each crop gets produced. An economist once told me that every jar of peanut butter we buy is .50 higher than it should be because of farm subsidies.
If anybody today tells you inflation is not a problem, you'll know that person does not do the family's food shopping and hasn't been in a supermarket in some time.
