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DON'T BELIEVE THOSE 'CORE INFLATION RATE ' NUMBERS
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." : John Kenneth Galbraith
Food and energy prices are soaring. Inflation is squeezing consumers and roiling financial markets. Official pronouncements are failing to ease inflation fears. In the first seven months of this year we have already seen an inflation rate of 3.4 percent according to the consumer price index.
If prices rise at this pace for the next five months, the 2006 inflation rate will be 5.8 percent. For comparison sake, we haven't seen an annual rate above 3.4 percent since 1991 (4.2 percent) and there hasn't been a rate as high as 5.8 percent since 1982 (6.2 percent).
As always, government officials are attempting to underreport the inflation estimates. Although the CPI shows that inflation increased from a monthly rate of .2 percent in June to .3 percent in July, government officials have reported that inflation declined from June to July.
They get this result by estimating a "core inflation rate." This core rate excludes product prices that are "volatile," and by volatile they mean rising faster than other prices. Excluding the most inflationary prices from the CPI estimates allows the feds to conceal the true harm of inflation. | 
