Fri. Mar 6th, 2026

Jeff Cox at CNBC provides a good accounting of the price hikes in various foodstuffs December-to-January and year-over-year (January):

* Ground beef up 6.8 percent month over month, and 11.1 pct year over year.
* Butter, up 3.2 percent monthly and a stunning 27 percent over the past year.
* Coffee, up 6.5 percent and 16 percent.
* Potatoes, up 3.6 percent and 7.1 percent.
* Lettuce actually fell 5 percent monthly after a spike higher in December, but is up 5 percent over the past year.
* Bread up 1 percent and 3 percent.
* Chicken up 0.8 percent. and 4.3 percent .
* Egg prices have been fairly steady.
* Milk, down slightly month over month, but up 2 percent year over year.

Orange juice and wine are actually down year-over-year, 1.6 and 6.9% respectively.

Overall, Cox finds the inflation gauge from the CPI very unsatisfying given fuel and food now consume over 12% of after-tax income. As deflation fears are becoming a distant memory, I expect the grumblings to grow ever louder that inflation feels and is much higher than official statistics are telling the general population.

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