Core CPI 0.6% annual... smallest since measurement began in 1957

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

I know that people are hurting and that we without money are highly sensitive to the price of staple goods like food and gasoline. But citing isolated consumer price hikes to suggest that inflation is ongoing is exactly the same as the global warming deniers laughing every time it snows somewhere. Weather versus climate.

This is the lowest annual inflation any of us have experienced, at least in our adult lives. (Some DUers were alive in the early years of the great depression which I think had outright deflationary periods.)

But in the face of extraordinary low inflation it remains a RW mantra that staving off hyper-inflation is a major national priority. This is flat madness.

Oh, and housing starts fell 11.7 percent in October...

The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index increased 0.2 percent last month, as energy costs rose, after edging up 0.1 percent in September. October's increase was below economists' expectations for a 0.3 percent gain. * Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core CPI was flat for a third straight month in October and the annual increase of 0.6 percent was the smallest since records started in 1957, the department said. * Economists polled by Reuters had expected core CPI to edge up 0.1 percent in October and the year-on-year rate to rise 0.7 percent after a 0.8 percent increase in September * Housing starts fell 11.7 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 550,000, the Commerce Department said. * It was the weakest starts rate since 477,000 in April 2009 when the economy was still struggling with the impact of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AG2MJ20101117

[Unvanguard]

1. Go "quantitative easing." n/t

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. self kicks are okay for low-controversy informational posts, IMO