Feds don’t buy groceries?
We’re supposed to trust them to fix the economy, but are they out of touch with what constitutes ‘the economy’?
The feds aren’t including the price of food in their cost of living calculus?
The Federal Reserve has been on a media campaign to sell its monetary policy to average Americans, but this hasn’t always gone smoothly. Witness last week’s visit to Queens, New York, by New York Fed President William Dudley, who got a street-corner education in the cost of living.
The former Goldman Sachs chief economist gave a speech explaining the economy’s progress and the Fed’s successes, but come question time the main thing the crowd wanted to know was why they’re paying so much more for food and gas. Keep in mind the Fed doesn’t think food and gas prices matter to its policy calculations because they aren’t part of “core” inflation.
Sounds like someone’s not having meaningful encounters with food and gas, although cooking books may be useful.
So Mr. Dudley tried to explain that other prices are falling. “Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful,” he said. “You have to look at the prices of all things.”
Reuters reports that this “prompted guffaws and widespread murmuring from the audience,” with someone quipping, “I can’t eat an iPad.” Another attendee asked, “When was the last time, sir, that you went grocery shopping?”
The piece says people are getting wise to the ways of political manipulation, and they’re losing confidence in the fed. At least no one is throwing tomatoes. They cost too much.
