Baltimore — I admit that I probably spend more time discussing the realm of politics than I should in a contrarian investing newsletter. But in my defense, politics play a larger role in our personal wealth now than they ever have before.

But while I so stubbornly poke holes in the political machine in Washington, I must avoid being hypocritical. If I shame our legislators for disregarding the democratic keystone principals of checks and balances, I must be careful to avoid the same pitfalls.

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.