By Richard Horgan Los Angeles (Knewz) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator is called the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index. And its latest readings are not good news. Compiled on a monthly basis by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), it focuses more on businesses than the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI). The annual increase of the latter in December by seven percent made headlines. The PCE, excluding food and energy, rose to 4.9 percent in December compared to a year ago. BEA excludes food and energy because those two eleme…