With the price of Thanksgiving dinner up 11% this year over last, the Fed won't help consumers because it's confident that inflation -- as measured by Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) will range between 1% and 2%. Meanwhile, Washington is happy to create lucrative business deals for Wall Street -- in the form of arrangements to manage and keep records of its Structured Investment Vehicle (SIV) bailout.

What is the Fed smoking? I don't know any personal consumption expenditures that are growing at 1% to 2%. The price of oil has quadrupled since January 2001 to $99.29 a barrel, gasoline prices are up 40% since last year, airfares have more than doubled -- a flight from Boston to Florida that cost $300 last year is now $700 -- and the dollar has lost 61% of its value since January 2001. I guess the Fed has decided to define PCE in a way that conveniently confirms its pro-inflation interest rate policy.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has backed a Super-SIV plan to bail out banks, such as Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) which created the $320 billion SIVs industry and invested the proceeds of SIV-issued commercial paper in now-worthless mortgage backed securities (MBSs).