Inflation

Wages and salaries in the private sector, a closely watched barometer of inflation, rose a modest 4.2% in the latest 12 months, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Among those with the heftiest increase were such service areas as health care, wholesale trade, finance, insurance and real estate. The increase for the 12 months that ended in March was the largest in 3 1/2 years, but went up only slightly from a gain of 4.1% in January-December, 1988, according to the employment cost index, which is issued quarterly.

The Better Business Bureau wants you to know that it's cleaned up its act in Los Angeles. The organization reached out to me this week to say that a new operation is up and running after the old BBB of the Southland was expelled in March after years of reports that the branch had been awarding inflated grades to businesses in exchange for cash. Carrie Hurt, head of the national Council of Better Business Bureaus, told me that a "virtual BBB" has been launched in Southern California, enabling bureau officials from across the country to address local consumer issues via the Internet.

Argentina's currency continued to plunge against the U.S. dollar in an 11-week slide that has driven up inflation and threated to kick off social unrest. The country is undergoing an "unprecedented emergency," said Saul Ubaldini, the general secretary of the four million-member General Labor Confederation, as inflation neared a record 40% this month. At mid-day Tuesday, Argentines paid 102 australs for each dollar, a 19% devaluation from the previous day. Interest rates paid by banks reached 80% a month as financial institutions tried desperately to keep investors from removing deposits.

KANO, Nigeria - Local government officials and a military spokesman in Nigeria agreed that security forces and Islamist militants had battled in recent days in the country's far northeast. But they offered widely varying accounts Monday of how many people, including civilians, had been killed. Some officials said about 185 people were slain in the clashes, with some residents blaming government troops in part for the deaths. Security officials put the number lower. The fighting began Friday in Baga, a fishing community near Lake Chad, but news of the violence reached Abuja, the capital, only late Sunday.

Wage, Price Controls Extended: Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari will extend wage and price controls beyond the July 31 expiration date, newspapers said. Salinas said the controls must remain in force to ensure improved living standards for workers. The controls went into effect in February, 1988, after prices soared 159.2% in 1987. Inflation was reduced to 51.7% last year. Under an agreement, the government pledged to curb spending, labor to hold down wage demands and business to freeze prices.

Gold prices plunged to a two-year low as investors fled from precious metals. It was the second day of decline for gold as the economy improves and fears of inflation in the U.S. ease. Gold is often purchased as a hedge against inflation. The price of an ounce of gold was down 7% to as low as $1,398 an ounce Monday, after falling 5% on Friday. The recent all-time high was $1,924 an ounce. Silver and copper prices also dipped. Concerns that China's formidable economic expansion is slowing sent jitters through the market.

California's bullet train will cost an estimated $98.5 billion to build over the next 22 years, a price nearly double any previous projection and one likely to trigger political sticker shock, according to a business plan scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday. In a key change, the state has decided to stretch out the construction schedule by 13 years, completing the Southern California-to-Bay Area high speed rail in 2033 rather than 2020. The delay allows inflation to drive up the price over the additional years of construction.

Wars and other crises have a way of remaking your oldest enemies into your best friends (and vice versa - just look at the history of U.S.-Soviet relations from 1939 to 1945). Given the depth and persistence of the financial crisis here and in Europe, isn't it time to embrace one of our oldest economic foes, inflation? The way most people think about inflation is reminiscent of the old National Lampoon cover line about pornography: "Threat or Menace?" But the idea that inflation might be our friend is gaining traction, and not only among progressive economists such as Paul Krugman.

Could "onward and up- ward" refer to inflation? MILLIE STAUFFER Carpinteria

Gold prices plunged to a two-year low as investors fled from precious metals. It was the second day of decline for gold as the economy improves and fears of inflation in the U.S. ease. Gold is often purchased as a hedge against inflation. The price of an ounce of gold was down 7% to as low as $1,398 an ounce Monday, after falling 5% on Friday. The recent all-time high was $1,924 an ounce. Silver and copper prices also dipped. Concerns that China's formidable economic expansion is slowing sent jitters through the market.

Venezuela's interim president, Nicolas Maduro, squares off Sunday with Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles in an election that will decide who will complete the term of Hugo Chavez, who died March 5 after designating Maduro as his political heir. Voters will be influenced by how they fared under Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution, which reduced poverty but also brought rampant inflation, soaring crime and food shortages. Here is a snapshot of Venezuala after 14 years of Chavismo. Economy: Pressing issues include a 20% inflation rate, a ballooning government deficit and a dearth of investment.

WASHINGTON - A few hours before midnight during a marathon budget session, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the only member of Congress elected as a socialist, called for a vote on his proposal to oppose any cut in cost-of-living adjustments for veterans benefits. With no opposition from senators on the floor, Sanders watched as his measure was unanimously adopted. In this first salvo ahead of the next round of budget battles with the White House, score one for the real-life socialist; zero for the president who is often derided as one. President Obama, however, was not dissuaded.

In his March 22 blog post criticizing proposals to switch from the consumer price index to "chained CPI" to determine cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries and other items in the federal budget, Michael Hiltzik claimed that there were "no grounds" for the statement made in a recent paper from the Moment of Truth Project (" Measuring Up, The Case for Chained CPI" ) that the chained CPI provides a more accurate measure of inflation than the measure currently used.  In fact, experts across the ideological spectrum agree that the chained CPI is indeed more accurate.

NEW YORK -- As the stock market continues to trend relentlessly upward, calls to raise wages for those at the bottom of the pay scale are becoming louder. After months of protests and marches, Iowa's Sen. Tom Harkin and California Rep. George Miller introduced a bill to tie the minimum wage to inflation, and various groups have responded in support and protest of the bill. But as a Senate Committee held a hearing Thursday on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, it became evident that what you think about the proposal might be related to what you think about the state of Oregon.

Hyundai Motor America is inching closer to a settlement of claims it inflated the fuel economy ratings of its vehicles. Details of the deal are still to be worked out, but the automaker is expected to reach a settlement in 38 lawsuits on the fuel economy mislabeling, which have been combined and are being heard in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Its corporate sister, Kia Motors America, is expected to also settle the litigation. Photos: Vehicles with overstated fuel economy claims In November, the South Korean automakers said they overstated the fuel economy on nearly 1 million late-model vehicles after the discrepancy was discovered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors the fuel economy tests by automakers.

WASHINGTON -- Despite worry in some corners about the Federal Reserve's stimulus efforts stoking inflation, there continues to be little indication that consumer prices are heading higher. The consumer price index was flat in January for the second month in a row, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. A drop in gas prices and a halt to recent gains in food prices held down the overall index. Compared with a year ago, the consumer price measure for January was up a mild 1.6%.

WASHINGTON - An increasing number of top Federal Reserve officials are worried about the downside effects of their economic stimulus efforts, raising the possibility that the central bank could curb its monthly bond purchases sooner than financial markets are expecting. Fed policymakers met at the end of last month and decided to keep buying $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds a month. The program is aimed at pushing down long-term interest rates to spur investment and economic growth and help lower the nation's high unemployment rate.