Via Zero Hedge, and from Intuit / mint.com, comes this darling infographic – click to get a bigger version:

We must stop to think about what it means. It’s not saying that, say, health insurance prices are up 111% in the last two years, or that housing prices are down 27%. No, it’s saying that household spending on health insurance is up 111% in the last two years; household spending on housing is down 27%.

Is this what ‘hidden’ inflation (inflation not noticeable in the government CPI figures) looks like? Because it could mean that people have less discretionary income: instead of spending on vacations or on nicer homes, perhaps they are forced to spend more on monthly basics like utilities, health insurance, education and kids’ expenses, etc.

I mean, I don’t think anything has happened in the last two years to make people want to spend more on health care, education or utilities. And I don’t think there are any important areas (even housing) that got much cheaper, in the same time.