You’re going out on the wrong limb then. And why would you doubt that I’ve seen higher prices on food and fuel? Are you just whistling past the graveyard? Or maybe it’s wishful thinking on your part since you want to believe those growth numbers.
I think it's wishful thinking on your part because you DON'T want to believe the growth numbers.
You could have seen higher prices on food and fuel in some places. You could have also seen lower prices on other things. (The former probably stand out in your mind more than the latter.) What I doubt is that you've seen actual evidence that inflation was definitely greater than 0.8%. Above all else, any anecdotal evidence you could have possibly seen in one single quarter, is too small a sample to be of statistical significance. But there are also the problems of confirmation bias and how representative the goods are that you tend to buy.
"Milk was $3.79 and later I saw it for $3.99, therefore inflation couldn't have been only 0.8%." Essentially that's what you're saying, and that is wrong. It is an incorrect argument. Even if you told me in full detail what goods you think you saw get more expensive (in 2007Q3), and by how much, there is nothing you could realistically say that would necessarily contradict the claim that inflation in that quarter was 0.8%.
Are you just whistling past the graveyard?
What "graveyard"?
Or maybe it’s wishful thinking on your part since you want to believe those growth numbers.
I don't "want to believe" those growth numbers. I don't care about those growth numbers. What I care about is shoddy argumentation.
I also grow weary of chicken-littles. We are a nation that can afford to spend $600 on "iPhones", supply each of our teenagers with an "iPod", buy water in bottles because we prefer the taste to tap, spend over $4 for a "latte" (coffee with milk) at Starbuck's, and make Alex Rodriguez a billionaire for hitting a ball with a stick in front of us. Yet for some reason we nevertheless feel this odd compulsion to tell ourselves (using our computers and internet connections, which we all have of course) how bad off we are and that economic disaster and depression is just around the corner. What whiners we are. I think anyone who thinks it's interesting and informative to whine that the government marked inflation at 0.8% instead of 2.8% or 5.8% in 2007Q3, and tries to use that as a launching pad into a discussion of how we have a horrible economy, should be required to travel back in time 75 years and give that same oh so clever speech to a randomly-selected group of Americans. Well, randomly selected - from Oklahoma.
I concur: Food costs more, fuel costs more and rent is the same or higher.
The ONLY factor that is marginally down is housing PURCHASES. Rent and mortgages are mostly UP!