Wampum

Inflation, in the US, is gauged by the Consumer Price Index, and for the most part, the Bush Administration and its economic puppets have touted just how low the CPI has remained over the past seven years. However, the CPI which the government and economists utilize leaves out those consumer goods it considered "too volatile", namely, food and energy. In order to see the changes in the price of those goods, you need to use a little known tool over at the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site. I spent this morning doing just that. Here are a few results.

First, the price of a dozen eggs over the past two years:

And how about the chicken:

And a pound of coffee:

A loaf of white bread:

And that heating oil:

But while these graphs are telling, the numbers are even more so: From January thru December, 2007, the price of these five goods, none of which are included in the CPI, increased 22.2%, while the "official" CPI increased a mere (seasonally adjusted) 2.4%.

(Note: The BLS no longer tracks the price of milk. The George HW Bush exception?)