WHO DO YOU BELIEVE, THE EXPERTS OR YOUR OWN EYES?

The pedants have gone to war. The Federal Reserve Board announced Friday that inflation as it measures it is rising at an annual rate of 6.8 percent, a 40-year high and more than three times the Fed’s 2 percent target. Ordinary folk stocking up on food say the rate they face is closer to 10 percent.

The President, the treasury secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board say America is not in recession, at least not as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, an unofficial organization of academics who look at a lot more than GDP data and at times take so long to select a recession start-date that the announcement comes when the recovery is underway. A majority of ordinary folk, 56 percent, tell The Economist the US is already in recession.