These investments of foreign capital, so valued and hoped for by the economy, are generating problems for Colombia since they affect the type of change required to impact the competitiveness of the Colombian economy.

Ah! This is more like it! You know how the official, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation figure was 3.0% last month? Well, I don’t know about you, but that felt a bit low to me. I buy things.

The inflationary reality that we as consumers have been living for months may finally be starting to dawn on the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Are people starting to catch on that government economic statistics are widely manipulated? After my post last week broaching this possibility, I just wanted to briefly keep score.

When Gordon Brown sold half our gold reserves all those years ago, it almost precisely marked the end of the yellow metal’s long bear market.

Inflation, if you believe what the government tells you, ran at 3.9% in the 12 months ending this April, but was it more like 5% or even 10%?

According to CNN “part of the disconnect may be due to the fact that nondurable goods, such as food and gasoline, makes up only 12% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the main measure of inflation.

Do you think the consumer price index understates the real cost of living? Well then, the New York Times says you buy into “conspiracy theories.”

In addition to all the earnings reports mentioned above, the economic calendar is full with important reports this week. Among those that jump out at me are the Producer Price Index, Consumer Price Index, the Philly Fed Survey, and Leading Indicators.

Fortune magazine asks an interesting question: How do you account for the discrepancy between the Fed’s recent assurances that inflation is under control and the 91% of the population (according to a March CNN poll) that’s worried it isn’t?

The answer? The feds focus on what they call “core” inflation. This strips out energy and food from the consumer price index because of their theoretical vulnerability to short-term volatility — magically making inflation seem smaller than it is.