Deflation talk is misplaced

All the talk about deflation notwithstanding, the news on prices hasn't changed very much in recent years. While the headline consumer price index is a prisoner to oil prices, which are subject to Opec's ruminations about production quotas and the changing odds of a Middle East conflagration, the core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes food and energy, has averaged a 2.6% annual increase for the past two years. The year-on-year change has been as low as 2.2% and as high as 2.8%. Sure, we can ooh and aah at the monthly CPI change, but the bottom line is that nothing much has chan...