CPI dramatically understates inflation, because non-compressible, and non-substitutable items are excluded (such as fuel.) The basket of CPI goods is arbitrary

CPI dramatically understates inflation, because non-compressible, and non-substitutable items are excluded (such as fuel.) The basket of CPI goods is arbitrary and changed from time to time to massage the numbers, and the things that would show inflation the best are excluded from the calculation. Unfortunately, the correct measure of inflation is monetary inflation, but the fed stopped publishing the numbers to derive that over a decade ago-- about the point when inflation was regularly exceeding %10 a year. At this point, to be honest, with the FOMC's efforts to "manage" the "markets", which really means, manipulating the economy to make the Fed's inflationary policies seem less damaging, and the fed's direct monetization of treasuries (an open secret) the economy is pretty highly distorted. This makes these kinds of comparisons wrong, but it also means the economy itself is in a bubble because the distortion obscure the true price of money leading to mal investment. Eventually this will no longer be sustainable.