/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>50390997
in america they report on inflation with the CPI (consumer price index) which is a basket of goods. they rebalance the basket by claiming that people tend to drive less for leisure, or substitute prime rib for chicken, or some other bullshit. this allows them to swap out more expensive products for cheaper products and manipulate the CPI basket downward.

but even the prices of individual products are manipulated. they perform quality or hedonic adjustments for proclaimed improvements of quality. a good example is cars. cars are getting more and more expensive but they adjust the price downward because a car from today has, for example, a touch screen infotainment system and an 8 speed automatic transmission. a car from yesterday might have a dumb radio and a 5 speed automatic transmission. they claim that the newer version of the car is a massive quality improvement, and so they can rightfully adjust the price downward to make it comparable on a $ to $ basis to the old car. in reality this is ridiculous. see pic related. the only measure of inflation that matters to the consumer is how much they pay at the cash register/sales counter for identical goods.

this sounds like schizophrenia but it's true. the BLS (bureau of labor statistics) talks about quality and hedonic adjustments on their own website. and they also talk about product substitutions within the basket. this is how you reconcile a 10% reported food inflation for april 2021 to april 2022 with witnessing firsthand, with proof of store receipts, the price of food going up 50% minimum in the same period of time.

>>49317851
it's a lie. in america they report on inflation with the CPI (consumer price index) which is a basket of goods. they rebalance the basket by claiming that people tend to drive less for leisure, or substitute prime rib for chicken, or some other bullshit. this allows them to swap out more expensive products for cheaper products and manipulate the CPI basket downward.

but even the prices of individual products are manipulated. they perform quality or hedonic adjustments for proclaimed improvements of quality. a good example is cars. cars are getting more and more expensive but they adjust the price downward because a car from today has, for example, a touch screen infotainment system and an 8 speed automatic transmission. a car from yesterday might have a dumb radio and a 5 speed automatic transmission. they claim that the newer version of the car is a massive quality improvement, and so they can rightfully adjust the price downward to make it comparable on a $ to $ basis to the old car. in reality this is ridiculous. see pic related. the only measure of inflation that matters to the consumer is how much they pay at the cash register/sales counter for identical goods.

this sounds like schizophrenia but it's true. the BLS (bureau of labor statistics) talks about quality and hedonic adjustments on their own website. and they also talk about product substitutions within the basket. this is how you reconcile a 10% reported food inflation for april 2021 to april 2022 with witnessing firsthand, with proof of store receipts, the price of food going up 50% minimum in the same period of time.

>>49270087
jewish black magic. they adjust inflation numbers downward with arbitrary adjustments. product substitutions to favorably rebalance the CPI basket and quality/hedonic adjustments to favorably rebalance specific product classes. meanwhile the only thing that actually matters is how much you pay at the cash register for identical goods at two different periods of time.