Niall Ferguson claims inflation is at 10 percent. Ponnuru isn't buying it. Nor is Yglesias:
Normal people judge inflation by watching fluctuations in the price of low-cost, high-frequency purchases. That means that common perceptions of inflation are dominated by things like gasoline and milk that people buy a lot. It also means that those of us who are lactose intolerant and walk to work are perennially out of touch with popular concern. But when discussing this point the next thing you’re supposed to do is observe that people are making a mistake when they reason this way.
Josh Barro rescues "a nugget of a reasonable idea buried within Ferguson’s piece":
[C]onsumers vary in what they consume. Households that have consumption baskets that are heavily weighted toward food and fuel are experiencing faster price rises (and slower growth in real income) than households whose consumption is weighted toward items that are flat or falling in price, like housing and electronics.
This doesn’t mean that inflation isn’t “really” 2.7 percent. … But it is true that some households are experiencing effective inflation that is higher than 2.7 percent, perhaps substantially higher, while others are experiencing less inflation.
The Dish 