[NYTr] Bloomberg report shows annual inflation rate at 38.4%

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[sorry about the missing apostrophes; htat's the way it came in. -NYTr]


sent by Mark Graffis - activ-l

OpEd News - Dec 16, 2007
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_michael__071215_double_digit_inflati.htm

Double Digit Inflation is Here

by Michael Fox

Buried deeply within Bloombergs recap of Novembers various and sundry
economic statistics, presented with the usual obfuscations and
reassurances of stability in the face of unfolding financial
catastrophe is one number that somehow manages to reflect what no other
US government statistic does: reveals the truth.  Just to be certain it
isnt ever noticed, youll find it nestled in the 23rd paragraph of the
article, precisely when the readers eyes have completely glazed over
from statistics fatigue.  The number in question is the wholesale price
index.

I wont make you wait: its 3.2%.  For one month.  On an annualized basis,
that is (without compounding) 38.4%.  It is the highest increase in 34
years, and if you remember the inflation that we endured in the mid
1970s, you know that this does not bode well for next years consumer
prices.

Whats unique about this double-digit inflation statistic is that every
other government economic statistic has been reconfigured in recent
years to reflect a sunnier picture than would have been revealed by the
accurate statistics, as they had always been reported.  Unlike, say the
unemployment statistics, which now do not consider those whose
unemployment insurance has expired - and, God knows how many hundreds
of thousands there are of those right now, even if Sec. Chow insists we
have only 4.6% unemployment (wanna buy a lovely bridge in Brooklyn?)

So why is this number trustworthy?  Well, unlike the Consumer Price
Index, which supposedly tells us what the inflation rate is, it doesnt
exclude the causal aspects of real-world inflation: food and energy.
The average Americans monthly expenses are dramatically affected by
those two expenses more than any other single regular expense.  The
other excluded element is housing, which in rents is expressed by the
published annual inflation rate itself (in cities with rent control),
but has become very significant with the preponderance of ARMs, but
that, too goes un-included.

However, the wholesale price index must include the costs of fuel and
food, because they fall within the manufacturers costs.  So be
prepared, because the wholesale price increases of November (and, no
doubt, December) will be coming to a store near you in 2008.  And you
never will have heard a word about it on the TV news.

[Michael Fox is a writer based in Los Angeles.]