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No, that isn’t what it’s doing. All it’s doing is saying that we aren’t going to announce a 99.99% deflation in hard drives because now they are measured in TB
by ls612 6y ago
No, that isn’t what it’s doing. All it’s doing is saying that we aren’t going to announce a 99.99% deflation in hard drives because now they are measured in TB instead of MB in the 90s, and things of that nature. In a platonic ideal the CPI aims to measure an unchanging basket of goods, but when this becomes impossible in reality something needs to be done.
- willcipriano 6y agoThe trouble is CPI is not generated in a transparent enough manner to prove your or my assertion.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> The trouble is CPI is not generated in a transparent enough manner to prove your or my assertion. It's obviously a complicated domain, but I think it is dishonest to say that it is transparency issue. It's not like BLS keeps adjustment methodologies secret.
- willcipriano 6y agoMethodologies sure, I can pull up some of the formulas they use. The dataset on the other hand, that is secret. A independent party cannot calculate CPI and end up at the same result as BLS. For something as important as inflation, and for this to be considered remotely scientific, the results need to be repeatable by independent parties.
- qnt 6y agohttps://voxeu.org/article/billion-prices-project https://voxeu.org/article/billion-prices-project An alternative approach to tracking CPI through scraping e-commerce. They get effectively the same result.
- imtringued 6y agoPCE is another indicator that tracks consumer prices and although its not identical the price moves are highly correlated. I've seen many comments dismiss the CPI as if it was somehow broken. The real problem is that the CPI is correct and that there is no inflation. Stock gains are either driven by a bubble or simply through unfair government policies or both at the same time.