why are the costs of food and energy excluded from the inflation rate

i have wondered about this one and with us facing spiraling inflation and possible stagflation begun to wonder more and more

it seems that i am becoming a prophet of doom or at least near future bad times

this does not please me as i am already taking anti-depressents

maybe we will get a change in administration soon enough to prevent the coming bad times from getting too bad, but i fear that this will not be

does anyone out there see a ray of sunshine or at least a silver lining

we may want change, but is change feasible or even possible given the inertia of our system

anybody but mccain or nader

You mean the CPI?
 
Care makes a good point, probably by accident but a good point.
Oil was going up LESS THAN CORE FOR DECADES so it was stripped out as did food.
Back then you didn't have emerging economies, you had US, a shitty European socialst mess, Japan propped up by us.
Now you have Europe learning to lower corporated taxes and growing, China overtaking Japan, and India saying Hey Look at us too!!
Engergy and food will now inflated faster than core and due to their essential nature maybe should become CORE.
 
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I didn't even read this but there is Headline Inflation which includes gas and food and Core inflation to excludes them. Both statistics are readily easy to find and anyone who understands the differance knows this to analyze them.
 
Which inflation rate is use to figure cost of living raises ?

congress use the one with food and fuel and eveyrone else uses the one without food and fuel ?
 
It is because they are considered a cause of inflation.

Basically it would be like 5+2 = 7 but then you ask why only 7 why don't you add in the two?

damo

let me see if i have understood you

when the the cost of energy rises, so does the cost of food

when the cost of food rises, so does the bite out of your net take home pay

these two taken together cause the cost of other goods and services to rise

but they all take an increased bite out of a persons net take home pay, just the first two start the ball rolling

this is like fairing data from a sensor that swings wildly and an average over time must be used

what i see is food and fuel are taking a bigger bite than anything else - fuel has reached prices between $3.86 and $4.10 per gallon where i live, but the cost of food has just about doubled since last year

when it comes to cost of living, these two (along with medicine) take the biggest bite out of my income (after taxes) :mad:
 
It is a portion of the prices you are paying for the item on the shelf, adding it back in doubles it for no reason other than you want it that way because panic is what you sell. If you can make it seem worse than it is, then it makes your points "stronger".

It would be like factoring in your personal energy cost then also the energy cost already factored into the price of something you purchase, even though that is part of how the price of the item is figured. It is a portion of the price you pay as it repays for the energy it cost to manufacture it while giving a profit to the maker.

The gas would be the same, it is factored in as a portion of the price of the item.

damo

while the cost of goods and services is factored into their costs, what about the cost of fuel that a citizen buys above and beyond what he pays as a part of goods and services and is fuel the only factor in the increase in the cost of food - what about weather and other such factors not to mention demand outside of our nation for grains
 
You mean the CPI?

w

whichever tracks the true out of pocket cost to the consumer

i.e., the difference between what i receive as income (net) annually and what i pay for all goods and services consumed - not including what i will call luxuries

bottom line, how much more will i need to pay for fuel, food, clothing and medical since i live on a quasi fixed income (retired with investments)
 
Care makes a good point, probably by accident but a good point.
Oil was going up LESS THAN CORE FOR DECADES so it was stripped out as did food.
.....
Engergy and food will now inflated faster than core and due to their essential nature maybe should become CORE.

THANK YOU :) But my point and the point of the economists in the article that Dungheap posted is that Food and gasoline were less than Core most of the time, with rapid fluctuations that reached in to peaking higher but immediately falling downwards or even through periods of being fairly constant...

leaving them out of Core inflation, to get a better grip, would make sense to me also, if this were the case.... this is not what we are in now...these same circumstances... But there is no going back now, in this global economy unless some politicians get cahones, which is unlikely....

the supply is limited, with the global growth in demand, for both food and fuel
and there is nothing in the near future that can hold back these prices of fuel and its price will continue to rise....same with food.

Sure there is "fluctuation", but it has been on a steady upward's trend for several years now and the "fluctuation" is all UPWARDS in price...

This makes it part of "core inflation" imho.

Care
 
damo

let me see if i have understood you

when the the cost of energy rises, so does the cost of food

when the cost of food rises, so does the bite out of your net take home pay

these two taken together cause the cost of other goods and services to rise

but they all take an increased bite out of a persons net take home pay, just the first two start the ball rolling

this is like fairing data from a sensor that swings wildly and an average over time must be used

what i see is food and fuel are taking a bigger bite than anything else - fuel has reached prices between $3.86 and $4.10 per gallon where i live, but the cost of food has just about doubled since last year

when it comes to cost of living, these two (along with medicine) take the biggest bite out of my income (after taxes) :mad:
Keep reading.

You don't have it right. I said you don't factor in the gasoline for delivery (it's in the cost of the item you purchase) twice. If we were to factor the cost of gas, it should be on retail not wholesale use, otherwise we factor it twice and it would be inaccurate.
 
Makes sense to me.

You just understand when you use these numbers for referance the implication of them.

Its a grows the hardship exponentially.
 
Damo,

How would gasoline or oil be in the picture twice if the retail sales of it at the pump was counted in with all of the other goods purchased to calculate the core inflation figure?

I understand the freight costs for a product is already calculated in to the markup of the product at retail....in the old days freight ran 1-1.5% of the cost of goods and then a minimum of a 50% markup when the goods hit retail...i am certain freight is a higher portion of the cost of goods than it was 5-10 years ago....but regardless...

my point is that gasoline prices are reflected at retail.....i understand this...and as example let's say the core inflation of goods at retail minus food and gasoline and heating oil prices, is 1% for the month of march.

Then let's presume the price of food and oil/by products has risen 2% for the month of march.

Presume oil and food is 33% of the total usa domestic products purchased here....and it is $1 trillion total, ( for the sake of the argument).

33% of that was sold with an increased retail price of 2%, and 66% of it was sold with an increased retail price of 1%....all of that calculates to a core inflation of 1.33% for the month of march....

To me, this gives a much better perspective to core inflation than saying, "Ok, core inflation is 1% and inflation on gas and food is 2% for the month of march.''

There are other reasons why the price of goods go up outside of gasoline prices...for example, you know I was in the Shoe Industry for decades, we went through a situation where in one year, the cost of leather and labor doubled in Brazil, where we were manufacturing a great deal of the shoes sold in the USA at the time. In one year we nearly had to DOUBLE the retail price of leather shoes....not raise them 10% but raise them nearly 100%....it was scarey as *hit, (but we made it through it and the women still came out and bought their shoes, much less of them, but our retail sales did not take a hit at all, only the units we sold)

My point is, that Leather doubled in price because it became a FAD for Leather Couches and Leather chairs, and a shortage of leather occured for the shoe industry because of stupid leather couches!!! It had nothing to do with transportation/freight fees!!!

so the price of retail goods fluctuate as much for other reasons than just gasoline/oil costs, only on a smaller individual scale....but NONE THE LESS, to me... the two should be combined....the retail sales of the purchases we made for gasoline and heating oil and food, along with the purchases we have made for the gadgets, and clothing from China to give a realistic "core inflation" number....especially with the consistant steady rises year after year with no drastic fluctuations down???

Maybe I am being hard headed on this...? :D hahahaha!

care
 
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