[Borodog]

Last time I checked, everyone I know uses food and energy. And for the majority of people, and most especially the poor, food and energy are a significant fraction of their daily budget. It is arguably the most important portion of the budget, since without food and energy, you pretty much die of starvation or exposure in short order.

Meanwhile the inflation rate on food and energy is much higher than the inflation rate amongst other consumer goods (especially for food now that this ethanol madness is ramping up; they are forcing us to BURN OUT FOOD IN OUT CARS). It is patently ridiculous to exclude food and energy from the calculation; the ONLY conceivable reason you would do so is to hide the true cost of inflation.