> If money is a stand-in for other goods, then we measure how much of these good money can buy. That's exactly what the standard definition of inflation capture

> If money is a stand-in for other goods, then we measure how much of these good money can buy. That's exactly what the standard definition of inflation captures. Which is completely useless if you don't take into account how much money people have to buy things with. What you want is a metric of prices vs. wages, which neither version of inflation takes into account. Money supply inflation would be a better predictor of prices vs. wages, however, since when the money supply is inflated prices tend to rise faster than wages (and vice-versa). Price inflation is a lagging indicator which incorporates a bunch of noise along with the delayed signal, especially when the supply is deliberately manipulated to achieve specific CPI targets.