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> Inflation can be computed by anyone, so I don’t even understand how you could lie about it. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics Choose carefully and cherry-pic

> Inflation can be computed by anyone, so I don’t even understand how you could lie about it. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics Choose carefully and cherry-pick how you source your input numbers, as garbage in means garbage out. Then let friendly media spokepersons help your PR quest by stating the numbers as if handed down by God himself. Then let peons on the internet call you conspiratorial. All in all, we shan't worry - these numbers are all simply transitory :)

toxik 4y ago
Basic econometrics is now useless under the parole of “lies, damn lies”. Good stuff. How about you propose a different metric then, that surely will be infallible and completely fair to everyone.
- yuropeen 4y ago
  - mytherin 4y ago
    > Food, Fuel, Housing - You know, the basics. So, exactly what the HICP contains then [1]? [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Weights_of_the_components_of_the_euro_area_HICP_(‰)_-_2022.png https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
  - npteljes 4y ago
    "You know" will not do its job, when you're dealing with complex systems. (Or, in my opinion, at any part of life.) You know why don't the web developers just put on the button on the website? You know just a normal button. And it just needs to work normally. On the other hand, I understand the disillusion and the distrust in the establishment, and in experts. People appoint themselves as experts all the time, and put down others by implying that the other don't understand the thing. In case of the current inflation, I don't think that this is what's happening. The source of distrust, I think, is the basic understanding of the metric itself, and the implications drawn from it. For example, that one's monthly spending should be the same amount higher as the inflation. In this regard, inflation is meaningless, at most it's a rule of thumb of sorts. Politicians, of course, will lie to you, and they'll be using anything, including numbers, to back it up. But that still doesn't mean that the method to calculate inflation is meaningless. For one, you can do it for yourself - which is of course hard, because I don't imagine you have historical data for prices of a bunch of products. But for example, if you're willing to trust another source, premium users of Numbeo can get a bunch of historical data, from which you could calculate inflation to your liking, including the products/services you actually buy and use.

toxik 4y ago

Basic econometrics is now useless under the parole of “lies, damn lies”. Good stuff. How about you propose a different metric then, that surely will be infallible and completely fair to everyone.

yuropeen 4y ago
- mytherin 4y ago
  > Food, Fuel, Housing - You know, the basics. So, exactly what the HICP contains then [1]? [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Weights_of_the_components_of_the_euro_area_HICP_(‰)_-_2022.png https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
- npteljes 4y ago
  "You know" will not do its job, when you're dealing with complex systems. (Or, in my opinion, at any part of life.) You know why don't the web developers just put on the button on the website? You know just a normal button. And it just needs to work normally. On the other hand, I understand the disillusion and the distrust in the establishment, and in experts. People appoint themselves as experts all the time, and put down others by implying that the other don't understand the thing. In case of the current inflation, I don't think that this is what's happening. The source of distrust, I think, is the basic understanding of the metric itself, and the implications drawn from it. For example, that one's monthly spending should be the same amount higher as the inflation. In this regard, inflation is meaningless, at most it's a rule of thumb of sorts. Politicians, of course, will lie to you, and they'll be using anything, including numbers, to back it up. But that still doesn't mean that the method to calculate inflation is meaningless. For one, you can do it for yourself - which is of course hard, because I don't imagine you have historical data for prices of a bunch of products. But for example, if you're willing to trust another source, premium users of Numbeo can get a bunch of historical data, from which you could calculate inflation to your liking, including the products/services you actually buy and use.