Three good reasons: 1. He's an economist so he ought to know the answer. He quotes the CPI regularly so it's obvious that its method of calculation is of great interest to the Fed. 2. The Fed is free to compute inflation as they see fit, so what is their justification for sticking to the official government CPI? 3. The answer would be of broad interest, since leaving out food and energy is widely joked about. Aren't folks entitled to know what the justification is? Bernanke can't say "because leaving out food and energy cheats entitlements and holders of TIPS, misleads our creditors in a way favorable to us, and benefits Treasury by billions each year." So wouldn't you like to know the "official" reason? I certainly would.
The only reason why a lot of you guys are against the rate cut is cause it cost you money last tuesday. Tons of people here went short before the meeting expecting a post reduction selloff, which never happened.
Watch as other asset bubbles are created. Inflation will become a bigger problem while the dollar continues to drop even further.