While calling "no foul" on a recent ad from the group supporting the Two-Thirds ballot initiative, the Michigan "Truth Squad" gets its facts wrong about inflation. It writes:
The Consumer Price Index over the last year rose 1.7 percent, while personal income in Michigan has been growing about 1 percent per quarter for the last year. (It should be noted that the CPI excludes energy and food, both of which have been rising lately. Food prices in particular are expected to climb, as effects of the drought filter through the food economy.)
While it remains to be seen what impact the drought will have on prices, the Consumer Price Index does, in fact, include food and energy prices. The recent release linked to by the Truth Squad even shows that food and energy are included.
The Truth Squad also mistakes price trends. While gas prices have increased in recent months, year-over-year energy prices are down 3.9 percent instead of increasing as they assert.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
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