Hey, Why Not Keep the Bad News Here at Home?

For nationalists annoyed that all this overseas bad news from your Libyalands and your Japanistans is keeping our sad, tired eyes away from where they should be peeled--right here at home--here's a couple of econ nuggets to keep you an all-American depressive:

* February housing starts lowest since April 2009 and a 22.5 percent plunge from January, and new building permits down 8.2 percent from January. (Let housing prices fall, though the heavens fall!)

* Producer food prices leap 3.9 percent in February, highest one-month increase since November 1974. Energy also jumped 3.3 percent. But don't worry, since the CPI excludes those relatively insignificant parts of our consuming lives, inflation just isn't happening.