Courtesy of Mish.
Today the BLS reported the CPI for All Items rose 0.4% in October.
“On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased 0.4 percent in October after rising 0.3 percent in September. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1 in October, the same increase as in September.”
Many have hopped on the Stagflation or Stagflation Lite bandwagon recently. Is stagflation coming up? Has it arrived already?
Food Prices
Some people might dispute the above food item line. I don’t. If anything, I find food prices substantially lower, and I do nearly all of our shopping.
The vast proportion of our food budget is fresh meats and vegetables. Beef prices are way down. I buy pork and chicken when they are on sale and store them in a freezer. I seldom buy boxed or can goods of any kind. Your results may vary.
The BLS Detailed CPI list shows the category of meat, fish, poultry and eggs is down 0.6% from September and 6.4% from a year ago. Those are believable numbers. If you only buy items on sale and freeze them, you could have done much better.
