The grocery shrink ray is a well-known thing, yes; however, it is not necessarily a sign of rising food prices overall, nor is it a sign of inflation in the overall economy. It only directly affects prepackaged foods; foods sold by weight have shown remarkable price stability. Furthermore, this entire point is moot sine we're talking about non-foodstuffs, which is a comeetely different issue.

Also, I am not a government employee, but unlike some people I try not to disparage people based on their employer or profession. If you woul like, though, I do have a couple of friends who are economists working for Fannie Mae who you can scream at about the gold standard and flourodization of water supplies.