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The CPI is not calculated honestly. If you use the CPI tabulation from the 1970s inflation will be way higher than what the current govt statistics from BLS sta

The CPI is not calculated honestly. If you use the CPI tabulation from the 1970s inflation will be way higher than what the current govt statistics from BLS state. For example, Owner’s Equivalent Rent is used, not actual rent that many families are struggling to pay. In addition, the Fed’s core inflation number is ex food and energy prices, which is also misleading.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> The CPI is not calculated honestly None of your argument supports that it isn't calculated honestly, just that you don't like the particular choices. And it doesn't help that you misrepresent them. > For example, Owner’s Equivalent Rent is used, not actual rent that many families are struggling to pay. Actual rent is used for renters. Owner’s equivalent rent (imputed rent) is used instead of asset purchase costs to assess the consumption cost of housing separate from the cost of acquiring a durable asset for homeowners. > In addition, the Fed’s core inflation number is ex food and energy prices, which is also misleading. The headline number is the full CPI, not core CPI. Core CPI is also reported, and may be used for some purposes by certain consumers of CPI data, but it's not the headline figure/main measure, so disagreement with its appropriateness as the main measure is fine, but a beating a strawman.
notahacker 4y ago
> For example, Owner’s Equivalent Rent is used, not actual rent that many families are struggling to pay. This is simply false. Firstly CPI includes both rent and owners equivalent rent, weighted in proportion to the people that rent and own houses respectively. Secondly, OER is calculated based on estimates of current rental prices. Plus of course including OER rather than treating rent as something homeowners don't have to worry about tends to increase CPI when rents rise fast... > In addition, the Fed’s core inflation number is ex food and energy prices, which is also misleading. "Core inflation" is a separate time series to the CPI, clearly reported as an alternative measure excluding volatile energy and food prices to compare with CPI. The only "misleading" is people ranting about how a separate dataset created specifically for comparison purposes proves dishonesty on the part of those calculating CPI...

dragonwriter 4y ago

> The CPI is not calculated honestly None of your argument supports that it isn't calculated honestly, just that you don't like the particular choices. And it doesn't help that you misrepresent them. > For example, Owner’s Equivalent Rent is used, not actual rent that many families are struggling to pay. Actual rent is used for renters. Owner’s equivalent rent (imputed rent) is used instead of asset purchase costs to assess the consumption cost of housing separate from the cost of acquiring a durable asset for homeowners. > In addition, the Fed’s core inflation number is ex food and energy prices, which is also misleading. The headline number is the full CPI, not core CPI. Core CPI is also reported, and may be used for some purposes by certain consumers of CPI data, but it's not the headline figure/main measure, so disagreement with its appropriateness as the main measure is fine, but a beating a strawman.

notahacker 4y ago

> For example, Owner’s Equivalent Rent is used, not actual rent that many families are struggling to pay. This is simply false. Firstly CPI includes both rent and owners equivalent rent, weighted in proportion to the people that rent and own houses respectively. Secondly, OER is calculated based on estimates of current rental prices. Plus of course including OER rather than treating rent as something homeowners don't have to worry about tends to increase CPI when rents rise fast... > In addition, the Fed’s core inflation number is ex food and energy prices, which is also misleading. "Core inflation" is a separate time series to the CPI, clearly reported as an alternative measure excluding volatile energy and food prices to compare with CPI. The only "misleading" is people ranting about how a separate dataset created specifically for comparison purposes proves dishonesty on the part of those calculating CPI...