‘Core inflation’ takes food and energy out of the inflation index. Many mainstream economists and Fed members pray at the ‘core inflation’ altar. So what economist came up with the wacky notion. Was it some Einstein type creating a concept that few other earthlings can understand? No.
‘Core inflation’ was created at the behest of Tricky Dicky, himself, Richard Nixon.
Kevin Phillips, a political and economic commentator for more than three decades and onetime Nixon strategist, reports in his new book, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, that, President Richard Nixon asked his Federal Reserve chairman Arthur Burns, to concoct a new inflation number that would be split off from traditional headline CPI, dubbed “core” inflation—and thus make inflation look less threatening.
Filed under: Financial Education | Tagged: core inflation, current events, Kevin Phillips, news
