How much is inflation really cooling? Thursday’s release of November’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) data showed inflation unexpectedly eased to an annual rise of 2.7% that month. But monthly comparisons — October data was never collected due to the government shutdown — were absent from the Labor Department’s report, leaving more recent price swings a bit of a mystery for dozens of product categories. Economists treaded lightly following the report. Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in an email that Thursday’s report was “the data nerd equivalent of the ‘emperor has no clothes’ ... (full story)