It's a slow business news day, so it's time to trot out some economic statistics. Today's discourse: the regional cost of living.

According to Infoplease,  which draws its data from the ACCRA Cost of Living Index, the cost of living in the Richmond region was 101 percent of the national average – or one percent higher.

That's not bad news. The Richmond region has higher-than-average per capita income ($38,233 for Richmond compared to $36,714 nationally in 2006), and higher incomes are associated with higher cost-of-living levels. That means that Richmond area incomes, adjusted for the regional cost of living, provide a reasonably high standard of living.

On the other hand, it's not great news either. It's not as if Richmonders compare themselves to the citizens of New York City, where living costs are literally twice as high as the national average, or the major metros of California, where costs run roughly 50 percent higher. Cities that we do compare ourselves to -- such as Charlotte and Atlanta -- have costs that are four or more percentage points lower than Richmond’s. Richmond compares most favorably in the areas of housing (97.9 percent of the national average), transportation (95.0 percent) and health care (98.0 percent.)  

Here's where we fall down: Utilities (102.3 percent – whose fault is this? Dominion Virginia Power's or the City of Richmond's?) miscellaneous goods and services (102.4 percent – what, not enough Wal-Marts?) and… drum roll… grocery items (108.4 percent – omigod, could our beloved Ukrop's be to blame?)

You hear the politicians talk about the "transportation" crisis and the "health care crisis" and the "housing" crisis, but no one talks about the Richmond region's "food affordability" crisis.

On the other hand, it's probably just as well that the politicians haven't glombed onto this issue. There's no more sure-fire way to turn the affordability of groceries into a genuine, full-fledged emergency than to have the government start telling Ukrop's, Food Lion, Kroger and Wal-Mart how to run their business!