SolomonSuccess.comA good financial adviser will not ignore the fact that inflation is an unavoidable fact of the modern American economy and, as such, it behooves the investor to arrange his portfolio to reduce the severity of the backhand across the face it can deliver when you tally up the credits and debits at the end of the year. Consider this. The government admits to an annual inflation rate of about four percent though, since the official calculation excludes food and energy costs, the number might as well have been sent in by as a candy-gram from a lobotomized clown, a term which, strangely, makes us think of Ben Bernanke.