Why Economists Ignore Gas And Food Prices When Doing The Math For "Cost Of Living"

Yesterday's Consumer Price Index showed a year-over-over increase of 3.5 percent in the Cost of Living. Markets, however, are rejoicing over the "core" inflation rate of 2.2 percent, saying it's tolerable. So what is "core CPI", you want to know. Well, core CPI is just like "regular" CPI except that it specifically excludes the prices of energy and food products because their respective prices can change so rapidly. Volatilility distorts trends and charts, so when looking at CPI, economists tend...