Monday, November 19, 2007

I know a dirty little secret.

When you read coverage of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the most important measure of inflation for us as consumers, you might not realize that many of the news agencies use the core CPI. That measurement excludes food and fuel prices--you know, two of the things you're most likely to purchase every day. Every administration does this, to hide the real inflation rate for consumers by arguing that grocery, gasoline, natural gas, and fuel oil prices are "too volatile" for true long-term analysis.

I suppose that's true. Still, as consumers, our real cost of living includes food and fuel and we should have accurate analysis of the actual expense we incur in our daily lives--including seeing the costs go down when gasoline drops precipitously. With fuel costs spiraling out of control due to increased demand in developing economies (hello, China and India), instability of supplies (courtesy George W. Bush and staff), and a weakening US Dollar (again, thank you George W. Bush and staff), we need to know the truth. It's true that the cost of fuel is beginning to creep into our other costs (perversely, the most sensitive item to fuel costs is food), but that takes time and is a filtered, secondary effect. Hiding these numbers is part of an effort by governments to avoid the consequences of their policies and decisions. The current government will pay if fuel continues as another hidden tax for a mismanaged federal budget and huge war deficit. It's just that I would prefer NOT to pay hidden taxes like this that affect me more than the wealthy.

How about a tax increase for the top incomes!

CDs listened to today:
  • William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Leonard Slatkin conducting)
  • Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra: Central Park North
  • Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem
  • Peter I. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
  • Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
  • Various Artists: Legally Stoned, disk 1
  • William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)

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