The Federal Reserve uses the core personal consumption expenditure to target inflation, a measure that excludes food and energy because the tendency of commodities to fluctuate more than consumer prices.

In the introduction to the Richmond Fed's annual report for 2007, Lacker wrote that inflation was "disappointing" last year. "Rapid increases in food and energy prices were the obvious culprits, but that provides little comfort to this central banker," Lacker wrote.

"The Federal Reserve is responsible for keeping total inflation low and stable - including food and energy prices," Lacker said, stressing the words 'total' and 'including'.

Other central banks, including the Bank of England, target headline inflation and Lacker seems to advocate for the same in the United States.

"While the effects of unexpected commodity price increases are difficult to offset rapidly, an appropriate monetary policy would ensure that such shocks even out over time and do not impart a persistent inflation bias-either up or down," Lacker wrote.

By Adam Button, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Nancy Girgis, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it