Why is it that when inflation is going UP, we report core inflation (inflation without all the "bad" stuff - food and energy). That's what they did today to keep inflation below 3% and keep interest rates down. But when gasoline prices DROP, we report them directly. Do they stress core inflation when overall inflation (including the "bad" stuff) drops, NOPE.
Even more importantly, that big indicator of a growing economy - the stock market - is always touted as a sign we are all doing well, right? Well, the Dow and the S&P have a very large core component - energy companies. So while we report how the consumer is doing without all that "bad" stuff, we don't do the same for the investor. Like, maybe indicating that taking the energy related stocks out of the market indices shows that the market barely beat treasury returns last year?
Just goes to show, you can make the argument if you control the numbers.