Right, but you're specifically referring to energy price inflation - and a quick bit of googling find widespread (and mostly worldwide) agreement that energy prices are spiking faster than other prices. But energy, while crucially important because of knock-on effects, simply isn't a dominating factor directly in most peoples expenditures.

Now, you could reasonably make the case that we should therefore expect future non-energy inflation to follow since energy is a cost in pretty much every step along the supply chain. And that's fair! ...but it's not a sign the official figures are fudged either; after all, it takes time to collect figures, and it takes time for retailers and everyone along the supply chain to update their prices. Given an energy price spike, it's totally normal to see the energy price inflation spike a short time (1-2 months?) later when the figures are next updated, and then see goods inflation spike (less highly) a month or two after that. If everything aligns perfectly and businesses and data collectors act quickly, maybe a little more quickly - but never immediately.

So we should expect to see e.g. gas prices rise first, and then other goods, all while not yet immediately being represented in official figures.

If, after a few months, a perceived price spike wasn't captured by the official figures, then it's time to start worrying - and even then, not every worry turns out to be founded.

Yikes, is this the US? Just a reminder that things like this are incredibly regional based. I still pay $1.79/lb for chicken breast and 3.50 for 80/20 ground beef in Richmond Virginia.

And gas goes up and down for a variety of reasons.

Speaking of region, $5 a gallon of gas is _still_ incredibly cheap next to our euro brethren.

Where do you live that gas is $5/gal and ground beef is $8/pound? The national average price of gas is $3.40/gal and ground beef is $4.50/pound.

I live in a fairly HCOL area in a state with some of the highest gas taxes (California). Gas is $4.19/gal* and ground beef is $6/pound. So my guess is that they're in the Bay Area OR just shopping at very expensive places

*Here in Los Angeles there's a handful of gas stations that inexplicably charge $1-$2 more than any other one. I always assume it's either money laundering or they just prey on people who aren't paying attention. $4.19 is just the cheapest price I've driven by in the last 24 hours

gas was 5.05 in the bay area today. not sure what the price of ground beef is but my steaks i buy went from $20 to $25 over the last year and they're worse quality

The Bay Area is one of the richest areas in the country. It's not reasonable to extrapolate pricing trends from there to the rest of the country.

The high gasoline prices in California are due more to state government policies that have artificially restricted supply. The state requires a special blend that's not really used anywhere else, and they don't allow construction of new refineries.

> The high gasoline prices in California are due more to state government policies that have artificially restricted supply.

To the extent that's true (and its a rather including incomplete story) as an intermediate cause, those policies themselves exist to meet federal pollution mandates, which California has, and even moreso in the last had, particular population and geography challenges with, particularly in the LA basin.

Maybe shop somewhere other than Whole Foods and Premium Gas R Us

Is it really fair to use gasoline as an inflation marker? Geopolitics cause the price of gas to fluculate wildly.

True, but it affects people both directly and indirectly since the majority of goods is still shipped with trucks. So, IMHO, it makes sense to use it as AN inflation marker, but not the only one.

And local trends vary a ton. You can find gas that’s $1 cheaper or more expensive just by shopping around.