comex physical holdings 12jul 2013, page-10

Although there are several ways of measuring inflation, I used the most popular measure, the consumer price index (CPI).

This index is based on a representative basket of goods and services drawn from a survey of the spending habits of 12,200 households.

With the passing of time the spending habits do change and, consequently,the same happens to the composition of the basket of goods and services, but the methodology stays the same. What the CPI measures is variations in prices over time and the difficulties in measuring such changes today are exactly the same as in the past.

In short, the CPI does not compare oranges with apples as alleged by you, but the price of oranges at the beginning of a period with the price of those same oranges at the end of that same period.

You mention that: "but I don't think that making the observation of rising prices for goods in the US and poor growth/employment and calling it stagflation is an economic crime."

You are right, it is not a crime. It just makes the discourse very difficult to follow. If one wants to discourse economic matters then one should try to speak in terms. If you don't want to do that at least call it stagoldflation, stagflation from a goldbud perspective.

You say that: there has been an improvement in minimum wage jobs, but that will not help the US which is largely a consumer based economy.

For sure that you must be trying to say something, but there is a problem in determining exactly what. If there has been an improvement in the number of people working under the statutory federal or state minimum wage schemes then that must be good for the US as there would be, so I think, less people unemployed and that country regardless of what type of economy they have. Moreover, to my understanding, a large portion of the minimum wage jobs are in the service sectors namely in Combined Food Preparation and Serving, including Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartenders, Cooks, Gaming Dealers, Waiters and Waitresses, etc. See link bellow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States

You also say that: The 2 main issues are structural and energy related.

Well if they are structural then where is the signature?

If you don't know what that means, here is the link:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/the-structural-signature/

According to you: NO SIGNIFICANT GROWTH can occur with rising energy prices in real terms.

That is strange in two ways. First because if the US, a service economy, cannot grow because of rising energy prices then I am left wondering what is going to happen to China, a manufacture economy and therefore an economy much more dependent on cheap oil than the US. Second, how could the US have experience growth in the past during periods of relative high oil prices? Didn't they experienced good growth between 1947 and 1957? See graph.

Finally, I do agree with you when you say that Economics is not a perfect science at the best of times, let alone when so many economic liberties have been taken by central banks globally. Or else how would one be able to explain the cries of hyperinflation around the corner, soaring interest rates and the like coming from the goldbugs and the usual suspects during the last couple of years?