This AP story is interesting because of how it spins the latest news on inflation. The headline reads, “US Consumer prices rise 0.4 percent in February.” The sub headline points out that this is the highest since last July. Yet, most of the story talks about the dangers of deflation–i.e. falling prices. This is in spite of the fact that we have yet to see any recent month or time period with a negative inflation rate. I think my favorite line in the article is this one: “Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in February, also slightly higher than the 0.1 percent rise economists expected.” By my calculation .2 percent is double what the article claims was the predicted rate. Now I wonder how many times greater than the predicted rate would it have to be before it is no longer “slightly” higher. I wonder if this were the Bush administration how this difference would have been described.
by Locker Room contributor