Emails I send....

"WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices fell unexpectedly in December but rose when energy and food costs were excluded, reinforcing
expectations the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates at
the end of the month."

Isn't this the opposite of what people are saying? I thought food and
energy prices were going up, and everything else was going down. Am I
misreading this paragraph?

BBC has it written very differently, the CPI fell 0.1% in December, due to
energy prices going down, but for the year, it goes up 3.4%.

Am I correct in understanding that the CPI does not exclude food and
energy per se, but tries to adjust the value of the things it looks at
based on what they would cost if food and energy prices were constant?
That's the impression I get trying to read the FAQ.

Funny how the Rueters article doesn't mention the CPI at all, yet uses the
exact same numbers.
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=$
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4624944.stm
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm