Tim at The Mess That Greenspan Made has a great post on how the Federal Reserve, and Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan, succeeded in making a laughing stock of inflation results through the use of imputed rent (owner’s equivalent rent) in the CPI data.
Not only is inflation higher, but the swings in inflation, driven as they are by the aggressive policies of the Federal Reserve to drive down wages manage inflation, are much more extreme.
In essence, as I’ve noted before the Fed has made itself look good.
BTW, you can get more information, in mind numbing detail, from Shadow Stats.