[arthurus]

Real inflation has been happening right along. Of course, inflation is not measured by the government in its CPI. I can't imagine the CPI isn't now based on simple lies. It is jiggered and rejiggered periodically to include things that are not rising in price and exclude things that are but the only thing that is falling is gasoline. Everything else is rising at a smart clip.In 5 years groceries are about double around here, clothing is up maybe 40% and general WalMart prices are up a lot and continually rising. WalMart does well at reducing prices from suppliers so their retail increases are probably on a gentler curve than general inflation would indicate.

Wages in my job, security guard, have actually declined 10% over the last 5 years compounded by more diligence in avoiding overtime.

[expat_panama]

Real inflation has been happening right along...   ...Wages in my job, security guard, have actually declined 10% over the last 5 years...

A wage is the price of labor, and wages going down mean that those prices are going down.   There are other prices and some are up and some down.   Here are the grand totals as of ten min. ago (direct from the CPI people at the BLS):

Table A. Percent changes in CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. city
 average
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                  Seasonally adjusted changes from             
                                          preceding month                      
                                                                          Un-  
                                                                       adjusted
                                                                        12-mos.
                              May   June  July  Aug.  Sep.  Oct.  Nov.   ended 
                              2015  2015  2015  2015  2015  2015  2015   Nov.  
                                                                         2015  
                                                                               
                                                                               
 All items..................    .4    .3    .1   -.1   -.2    .2    .0       .5
  Food......................    .0    .3    .2    .2    .4    .1   -.1      1.3
   Food at home.............   -.2    .4    .3    .3    .3    .1   -.3       .3
   Food away from home (1)..    .2    .2    .0    .2    .5    .2    .2      2.7
  Energy....................   4.3   1.7    .1  -2.0  -4.7    .3  -1.3    -14.7
   Energy commodities.......   9.6   3.1    .7  -4.1  -8.6    .4  -2.4    -24.2
    Gasoline (all types)....  10.4   3.4    .9  -4.1  -9.0    .4  -2.4    -24.1
    Fuel oil (1)............    .7  -1.9  -3.4  -8.1  -2.4  -1.1  -1.3    -31.4
   Energy services..........  -1.0    .2   -.6    .5   -.4    .2   -.1     -2.8
    Electricity.............  -1.2    .2   -.4    .3   -.5    .4    .3      -.2
    Utility (piped) gas                                                        
       service..............    .0    .3  -1.4   1.2   -.3   -.7  -1.9    -11.7
  All items less food and                                                      
     energy.................    .1    .2    .1    .1    .2    .2    .2      2.0

Nov. numbers show deflation; I'm wondering if the Fed believes it any more than the folks on this thread...