I’m sure most of you have seen this video where Ron Paul questions Bernanke on inflation:
At about 1:18, Paul mentions a “free market group” that calculates the CPI the old way to get a more accurate picture of inflation. I was wondering if any of you know the name of the group he was referring to. Commenting on the video and a quick Google search don’t seem to turn up the specific one he was talking about.
Not sure if I should have just posted this in the low content thread. Apologies if this is in the wrong place.
There are links there explaining how they get their calculations, and what the government has changed over the past few decades in the way they calculate CPI and unemployment.
Hmm, if he mentions Shadowstats, I’d hazard a guess that’s the one. Useful resource, nonetheless. Thanks!
The 1980-based chart shows us at around 10% inflation right now. Youch. I thought about calculating my own inflation by creating an index of the items I repeatedly buy here in New York but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Several restaurants I’ve eaten at have certainly jacked up the price in recent years, though. My Pad Thai lunch went from $9 straight to $13!
Food and energy are not included in official CPI. They are “too volatile.” But those are two areas that are having extremely large price rises, and where people spend large chunks of their income.
