Fed-Speak: "We're Totally Clueless!"

From the WSJ:

...Witness last week's visit to Queens, New York, by New York Fed President William Dudley, who got a street-corner education in the cost of living.

...come question time the main thing the crowd wanted to know was why they're paying so much more for food and gas. Keep in mind the Fed doesn't think food and gas prices matter to its policy calculations because they aren't part of "core" inflation.

So Mr. Dudley tried to explain that other prices are falling. "Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful," he said. "You have to look at the prices of all things." Reuters reports that this "prompted guffaws and widespread murmuring from the audience," with someone quipping, "I can't eat an iPad."

Dudley simply repeated 'Clueless Al' Greenspan's theory that 'if hamburger is too expensive, the peons will buy chicken instead.'

Or, if hamburger AND chicken are too expensive, the peon will eat an iPad.

HT: PowerLine