Back in March, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, William Dudley, was trying to explain to the citizens of Queens, N.Y., why they had no cause to worry about inflation. Dudley put it this way: “Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful. You have to look at the prices of all things.” Quick as a flash came a voice from the audience: “I can’t eat an iPad.”

Dudley’s boss, Ben Bernanke, was more tactful in his first-ever press conference on Wednesday of last week. But he didn’t succeed in narrowing the gap between the Fed’s（The Federal Reserve Board’s） view of inflation and the public’s.

The Fed points to the all-urban consumer price index（CPI-U） and notes that it was up only 2.7 percent in March relative to the same month a year earlier. Strip out the costs of food and energy, and “core CPI”—the Fed’s preferred measure—is just 1.2 percent. When Google unveils its new index of online prices, it’s likely to tell a similar story.

To ordinary Americans, however, it’s not the online price of an iPad that matters; it’s prices of food on the shelf and gasoline at the pump. These, after all, are the costs they encounter most frequently. And with average gas prices hitting $3.88 a gallon last week, filling up is now twice as painful as when President Obama took office.

Sensing a threat to his hopes of reelection, the president last week called on Congress to eliminate “unwarranted” tax breaks for oil companies and set up a Justice Department task force to investigate price gouging and fraud in the oil markets. The spike in gas prices is the result of Fed policy, which has increased the monetary base threefold, and a geopolitical crisis in the Middle East that the president and his advisers still haven’t gotten a handle on.

And the reason the CPI is losing credibility is that, as economist John Williams tirelessly points out, it’s a bogus index. The way inflation is calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been “improved” 24 times since 1978. If the old methods were still used, the CPI would actually be 10 percent. Yes, folks, double-digit inflation is back. Pretty soon you’ll be able to figure out the real inflation rate just by moving the decimal point in the core CPI one place to the right.

【词汇突破】

（标有*词汇为超纲词）

inflation  n. 通货膨胀：control inflation控制通货膨胀

quick as a flash（尤指人的回答、反应）迅速的；飞快的：Quick as a flash he was at her side. 转眼间他已到了她的身旁。

tactful adj. 机智的；灵活的：They need a tactful word of advice. 他们需要一个机智灵活的建议。

narrow the gap 缩小差距：narrow the gap between rich and poor 缩小贫富差距

consumer price index（CPI）消费者价格指数

relative to与……相比：The figures suggest that girls are underachieving relative to boys.统计数字表明女生的学习成绩不如男生。

encounter  v. 遇到；碰到；面临：We have encountered one small problem. 我们遇到了一个小问题。

take office 就职: He will take office in March and serve as president for four years. 他将会在三月份就任总统一职，任期四年。

*unwarranted  adj. 未证实为正当的；未经授权的：The delay did seem unwarranted. 延期看来并非必要。

*gouge  v. 诈骗钱财； 敲竹杠

*spike  n. 激增：a spike in the oil price 油价的突然上涨

*threefold  adv. 三倍地：The aftershocks intensify threefold each time. 余震每次增强三倍。

*geopolitical  adj. 地缘政治学的（有关地理与政治和经济之间关系的）

get a handle on 理解；明白： I was finally able to get a handle on the true nature of theproblem.最终我能够理解这个问题的实质。

credibility n. 可靠性；可信性： After the recent scandal the government haslost all credibility. 经过最近这次丑闻之后, 政府完全失去了人们的信任。

*bogus adj.伪造的；假的：a bogus passport 伪造的护照

digit n.（0 到 9 的任一）数字；数位：The number can be up to eight digits long. 数字可达八位数。

decimal point 小数点：The period is also used as a decimal point. 句号也可用作十进制的小数点。

【句式分析】

Back in March, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, William Dudley, was trying to explain to the citizens of Queens, N.Y., why they had no cause to worry about inflation.

本句的主干结构为...the president of the New York Federal Reserve...was trying to explain...why...，句首的 Back in March 是表示时间的状语， William Dudley 作主语的同位语， N.Y.是New York 的缩写形式，句末为 why 引导的宾语从句，作 explain 的宾语，此处是 explain sthto sb 结构， 只不过句中把 to the citizens of Queens, N.Y. 提前到 explain 后了。

【全文翻译】

在三月份的时候，纽约联邦储备委员会主席威廉·达德利在试图向纽约皇后区市民解释为什么不用担心通货膨胀时说：“过去买 iPad 1 的钱现在能买到 iPad 2，而 iPad 2 的性能却比 iPad 1 要强大一倍。大家应该注意所有商品的价格。 ”听众席中立刻冒出了一句： “我又不能吃 iPad。 ”

达德利的上司本·伯南克在上周三招开了第一次记者招待会，他的表述更有策略。但是，他也没能成功缩小联邦储备委员会和民众对于通货膨胀认识的差距。

联邦储备委员会提到了城市消费者物价指数，并指出这个指数在今年三月比去年同期仅上涨了 2.7%。排除食品和能源价格因素，“核心消费者物价指数”仅仅增长了 1.2%，联邦储备委员会尤其喜欢使用这个指数。谷歌发布的新一轮在线价格指数也与这一数字相似。

然而，对于普通的美国民众来说， iPad 在网上卖多少钱并不重要，重要的是超市货架上食物的价格和加油站里的油价。毕竟，这些才是人们最常消费的物品。上周的平均油价达到了 3.88 美元一加仑，现在加满一箱油要比奥巴马总统刚就职时痛苦两倍。

奥巴马觉察到这将会对自己的连任造成威胁，便在上周要求国会取消对石油公司实行无正当理由的税费减免，并且成立了一个司法部门，专门调查石油市场的价格欺骗和欺诈行为。油价的急剧上涨是由联邦储备委员会的相关政策导致的，在其作用下基础货币增长了三倍，另一原因是中东的地缘政治危机，对于这一危机，奥巴马总统及其智囊团至今仍未弄明白。

消费者物价指数正渐渐失去可信性，因为正如经济学家约翰·威廉姆斯不厌其烦指出的那样，它只是一个虚假的指数。自1978 年以来，劳工统计局计算通货膨胀的方法已经“改进”了 24 次。如果还使用原来的方法，消费者物价指数实际应该是 10%。是的，朋友们，两位数的通胀又回来了。想快速计算出真正的通货膨胀率吗？把核心消费者物价指数的小数点向右挪一位吧。