A first look at 2.8 percent inflation

In the process of trying to figure out what the 2.3 percent cost-of-living increase for social security recipients means in the real world, the graphic below was prepared as a first look at the 2.8 percent annual inflation, reported last week by the Labor Department.
The housing and transportation categories are of most interest, simply because they are the largest pieces of the pie, and the size of the medical care slice seems woefully small for senior citizens.

There will be more to come on this subject sometime this week - what seems clear already is that, if the older crowd would buy more clothes, iPods, and video games, their money would stretch a lot further.