Import prices rising -- duh
Can someone please notify Ben Bernanke, Larry Kudlow, and everyone else who thinks a weak dollar means nothing to U.S. consumers of these numbers from the Labor Department this morning?
Driven by a weaker dollar and much higher prices for petroleum and natural gas, import prices surged 2.7% in November, the largest monthly increase in 17 years, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
Even excluding fuels, import prices rose 0.5%.Import prices have now risen 11.4% in the past year, the largest gain in the 25-year history of the import price index. Import prices increased a downwardly revised 1.4% in October.
Of course, this news doesn't mean anything for people who buy American-made products. Oh, that's right, there aren't as many American-made products as there used to be. And the ones that are American-made often are made with imported capital goods, so those prices are rising too.
But if you've drunk the Kudlow KoolAid, none of that makes any difference.
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