A Long-Term Look at Inflation

 | Feb 18, 2012 11:41PM ET

Note from dshort:

I've added a 10-year moving average to the first chart below, which highlights the volatility of this data series.

The February 2011 Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released today puts the January year-over-year inflation rate at 2.93%, which is a full percent below the 3.95% average since the end of World War II.

For a comparison of headline inflation with core inflation, which is based on the CPI excluding food and energy, see this www.shadowstats.com ).