Thursday's Thrilling Absurdities: Inflation Suddenly Back Over 8%, Romney Retires and More

From our Read ‘em and Weep file: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published the rate of inflation for August this morning, and the news is very predictably not good:

After months of pretending inflation is “under control,” the BLS bureaucrats apparently ran out of ways to hide the truth, and now admit it’s actually running at an annual rate of 8.4%, which is itself is no doubt a dramatic understatement. Anyone who does the grocery shopping for their family knows that prices at the local store are up at least 20% since January, with no signs of stopping or even slowing down.

Add to that rising prices for crude oil and thus for gasoline during August, and BLS no longer has the ability to pretend we’re running at a laughable 3-4% annual rate.