John Williams On Recession; Latest Inflation Shadow Stats (and more)

``"Although the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reports that general business activity in the United States has recovered its pre-recession levels, no major independent economic series confirms that circumstance.  Only the BEA's overstated and heavily-politicized gross domestic product (GDP) measure makes that claim... Adjusted to pre-Clinton (1990) methodology, annual CPI inflation was roughly 6.3% in December 2011... up from 4.8% in December 2010. [Unwinding] gimmicked changes to official CPI reporting methodologies back to 1980 gives about 10.6%...''