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Interesting article about inflation: http://business.time.com/2013/03/12/if-theres-no-inflation-why-are-prices-up-so-much/ http://business.time.com/2013/03/12/i

• opendais 12y ago
  Yes, if you cherrypick items you can find item X changed faster than the total basket for CPI. CPI is intended to gauge the general rate of inflation over the economy as a whole, not that of specific purchasing patterns by individuals. As such, comparing a CPI from years ago (1999) to now (2014) is roughly equivalent. You can claim the number itself is wrong but not that is wrong compare to the values it held previously under the same methodology. [e.g. CPI can be claimed to be X% lower than reality, but if CPI is 2.7% in 1999 and 2.1% in 2014 under the same methodology the relative level of inflation is effectively identical] Even the title is wrong: "If There’s No Inflation, Why Are Prices Up So Much?" If you look at the CPI from that point in time: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_03152013.htm http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_03152013.htm It shows 2% inflation. It is a linkbait article with a false premise and lots of cherrypicking. 1999: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/history/cpi_01142000.txt http://www.bls.gov/news.release/history/cpi_01142000.txt
  • api 12y ago
    Yeah... it certainly seems like there's price inflation if I cherry pick things like food, real estate, energy, health care, and college tuition. I'm old enough to have lived through a good economic period with widespread optimism: the 1990s. We are in a depression.
    • opendais 12y ago
      Please provide evidence we are in a depression that is grounded in facts, not anecdotes.
  • dnautics 12y ago
    who gets to choose what's in what basket? Which choices are correct, and which ones are not?
    • opendais 12y ago
      > who gets to choose what's in what basket? Economists. Y'know, people who do that professionally. > Which choices are correct, and which ones are not? http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm#Question_6 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm#Question_6
      • JetSpiegel 12y ago
        Ohh, the "trust me I'm a professional" defence. That doesn't answer the question. Or do they use chicken entrails?
        • opendais 12y ago
          By all means, provide a concrete example that doesn't rely on cherrypicking data [such as simply picking food or a methodology I can't find without giving someone money] showing they are incorrect.
        • MaysonL 12y ago
          Or you could look at the "Billion Prices Project" at MIT which actually only monitors ~5 million prices, but still says inflation is only a very little bit worse than the CPI... http://bpp.mit.edu/usa/ http://bpp.mit.edu/usa/