[hedora]

I can’t decide if the economy has bifurcated or if these inflation stats are totally bogus.

Diesel is almost $7/gallon here. All the stuff we buy (food, services, electronics) are up 30-100% since the beginning of last year, but federal inflation stats claim 3%.

[carefree-bob]

Gas is certainly bifurcated. The west coast is paying up to $5.80 and Texas/midwest are paying $3.20 or so. NY and New England is paying a lot, but from Virginia on down, they are paying less. All the midwest is paying close to texas prices except Illinois, which is paying California prices.

Some of that is differences in taxes, but some of it is due to getting gas from different sources. If we had a pipeline from Texas to CA, there would be less bifurcation.

In terms of food being bifurcated, that too is happening, but to a smaller degree.

Basically the entire West coast is suffering from high inflation.

[hedora]

For the national 3% average to hold, for the low end of my range (30%) to hold on the west coast, the rest of the country would have to be suffering from deflation.

[carefree-bob]

There is not 30% inflation in any region. Not even 15%.

I think you have to go back to the civil war era and greenback inflation to find numbers like that in any region.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-pri...