Fuel Prices Declined in April.

[DWordinger]

At least according to our federal government. From Key Gauge Indicates Rising Inflation Pressure - Economy * US * News * Story - MSNBC.com:

US inflation at the wholesale level rose slower than expected in April, but core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose twice as fast as expected and hit its fastest annual pace in more than 16 years, the Labor Department said.
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Energy fell 0.2 pct, the largest drop since December, while food was unchanged in the month. Within the energy sector, gasoline fell 4.6 pct, the largest drop since December.

You didn't notice the drop in fuel prices? The way our government computes price changes is discussed here. The author, Robert Murphy is an economist with the Institute for Energy Research, but he can't figure out how the government arrives at its figures either.

Inflation is the increase in the money supply, caused by printing more currency, fractional reserve banking, and creating something from nothing and calling it money. Some like to refer to increased prices as inflation, but that is meaningless. "Prices are higher because of inflation. We have inflation because prices are higher." Doesn't explain much does it? Obscuration just just serves to hide our politicians' and bureaucrat's' complicity.

Since Social inSecurity and government retirement payments are affected by inflation, it is to the governments advantage to make these numbers as low as possible. Hence we have just just "inflation," but "core inflation" so they can choose whichever number looks better that day. As Robert Murphy wrote, the government doesn't have to lie about the numbers because they can make the numbers whatever they want them to be.