I don’t have anything from the White House in my inbox as I write up this post so I’m guessing they’re trying to come up with their spin on this Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.
My financial friend gave me great advice: Whatever the government says it is, multiply it by two to make it more accurate.
More accurate and scarier.
Let’s get this out of the way. Inflation went up by 0.4% in February. But that’s not the scary part.
The big picture is that everything is 6% higher than a year ago. Prices are not easing or not easing enough of basic household goods.
Rent of shelter rose 8.2%, which is the highest ever. The owner’s equivalent rent, which is another way to measure rent, went up 8%.
Oh, yeah. That is also the highest ever.
Rent is the highest ever.
Food at home went up 10.2% in the past year.
Eggs went up 55.4% in the past 12 months! Biden will probably only mention that eggs decreased prices by 6.7% in February. That’s cool and all, but still. Price increase of 55.4% in a year!
Food at elementary and secondary schools soared 299.7%.
Baby food and formula increased 9.8%.
I’m going to give you the numbers as I always do. Remember, these numbers are percentage changes in the last 12 months.
Food overall went up 9.5% in the past year. Here’s a screenshot for items under cereals and bakery products because they all skyrocketed in the past year.
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs went up 6.8%.
Dairy and related products prices increased 12.3%
Fruits and vegetables up 5.3%
Apples: 5.6%
Bananas: 4.6%
Citrus fruits went DOWN 1.2%
Potatoes: 13.5%
Lettuce: 10.4%
I know nutritionists and others harp on fresh veggies and fruits but frozen veggies and fruits are just as good. And shoot, for busy parents, canned veggies and fruits (not in sugar though!) are easy, and if your kid eats those, it’s better than nothing.
I rant about that because Processed fruits and veggies went up 14.2%. Frozen vegetables alone increased 21.4%!
Nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials went up 12.3%. Everything in the category had double-digit increases.
Fats and oils increased 19.4%.
Food away from home is up 8.4%. It’s insane that food at employee sites and schools went up 134.4%.
As I mentioned before, school food is up 299.7%.
Pet food increased 15.2%. Veterinarian services went up by 10.3%.
All types of gasoline went down in the past year. That’s wonderful news! But…electricity went up 12.9%, and fuel oil increased 9.2%.
The CPI report is bad. Really bad. Painfully bad.
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