3 ms·

This is a good point. The government really shouldn’t be producing a single number and saying that’s “the” inflation rate. It muddies the waters and makes it ea

This is a good point. The government really shouldn’t be producing a single number and saying that’s “the” inflation rate. It muddies the waters and makes it easy to think that the economy is some magic system where things just happen rather than the sum of choices by individual companies and consumers. If OPEC decided to stop producing oil altogether you bet there would be “inflation” caused by oil prices but that doesn’t mean the FED should be goaded into making changes to policy.

nradov 4y ago
The government doesn't produce a single number. The BLS produces multiple numbers and you can use whichever one fits your situation best.
- binarybits 4y ago
  And then people frequently complain about these varieties—for example, that the BLS produces a "core" version that excludes food and energy even though there's also a version with that stuff included.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  Same story with unemployment. Lots of people complain that U-3 doesn't capture some aspect of unemployment that they care about. Okay; that's why there are 5 other U-x measures...
dragonwriter 4y ago
> The government really shouldn’t be producing a single number and saying that’s “the” inflation rate. It doesn't, it produces many different Consumer Price Indices, plus a variety of industry-specific Producer Price Indices, all are measures of inflation.
zajio1am 4y ago
> If OPEC decided to stop producing oil altogether you bet there would be “inflation” caused by oil prices but that doesn’t mean the FED should be goaded into making changes to policy. Why should not? Inflation is just change of price level. Price level is just ratio of circulating money to real production. If OPEC decided to stop producing oil, that would create massive negative shock to real production, so FED should restrict circulating money to maintain that ratio.

nradov 4y ago

The government doesn't produce a single number. The BLS produces multiple numbers and you can use whichever one fits your situation best.

binarybits 4y ago
And then people frequently complain about these varieties—for example, that the BLS produces a "core" version that excludes food and energy even though there's also a version with that stuff included.
sokoloff 4y ago
Same story with unemployment. Lots of people complain that U-3 doesn't capture some aspect of unemployment that they care about. Okay; that's why there are 5 other U-x measures...

dragonwriter 4y ago

> The government really shouldn’t be producing a single number and saying that’s “the” inflation rate. It doesn't, it produces many different Consumer Price Indices, plus a variety of industry-specific Producer Price Indices, all are measures of inflation.

zajio1am 4y ago

> If OPEC decided to stop producing oil altogether you bet there would be “inflation” caused by oil prices but that doesn’t mean the FED should be goaded into making changes to policy. Why should not? Inflation is just change of price level. Price level is just ratio of circulating money to real production. If OPEC decided to stop producing oil, that would create massive negative shock to real production, so FED should restrict circulating money to maintain that ratio.