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Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

forbes.com

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Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#381

Post by tootie »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #228
tootie wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "free press" is reporting BLS data. And BLS produces a CPI number based on a formula to act as an indicator, not an absolute measure. People tend to react to things they buy frequently which also happen to be the most volatile (food and fuel) and react less to things they actually spend most of their money on (shelter and transportation). CPI is a broad indicator and will never match the lived experiences of 350M…

>People tend to react to things they buy frequently which also happen to be the most volatile (food and fuel) and react less to things they actually spend most of their money on (shelter and transportation). Are you suggesting housing prices haven't gone up similar to food prices? Because they have. House prices in many places went up 50% in the last few years and never went back down. People aren't imagining this in…

I am not implying that. But house prices by their nature move more slowly. Even if new listing are more expensive, anyone in a long-term lease or an owner isn't subject to new prices. Or anyone who has exited the housing marker (ie moving in with parents) is not paying high prices.

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#382

Post by dwallin »

fvvybfbfbyg wrote: post #328
tossandthrow wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or the Scandinavian countries that generally have higher spending power than the us. remember not to conflate a strong economy with an economy that is worth living in. you can possess minimum paid jobs in order to make profits for shareholders and never see a dime of that wealth yourself, but alas, you live in a strong economy.

> or the Scandinavian countries that generally have higher spending power than the us. Do they? PPP they all have lower disposable income than the US and they are not even at the top in Europe (including social transfers). Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands are above Norway and Sweden is even lower than France.

Of course we have higher Disposable Income in the US, it's a useless metric for these sorts of comparison purposes as it includes expenditures for things like healthcare, which in most other places is paid for by taxes (aka. not part of disposable income). A more useful metric would be Discretionary Income.

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#383

Post by ethanbond »

lupire wrote: post #380
ethanbond wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crime is much much lower than it was decades ago almost everywhere in the US. Also “run down” in reference to cities is just not true outside of a few failed areas like Detroit. NYC today is dramatically nicer than it was decades ago.

Your data on New York "today" appears to be pre-opiod.

The opioid issue is absolutely a big degradation in QOL from recent years, but no the current crime rate is still well below decades ago, especially on a per capita basis.

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_p...

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#384

Post by ethanbond »

lupire wrote: post #377
ethanbond wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is easy: how much did an acre of land in Palo Alto cost then, and how much does it cost now? Why? Why does the price of land “need” to go up? It pays no wages, no rent, no suppliers, no anything. It’s just there being land, no matter what price it is. So why has its price gone up and who benefits from that?

Everyone who lives there benefits from that. Otherwise they wouldn't want to live there.

What? People benefit from higher land prices?

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#385

Post by mistermann »

mistermann wrote: post #189
randomdata wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, "we" did not pick it, someone else picked it "on our behalf" With a gun to your back, eh? We can use whatever source of inflation we want. Nobody is selecting for us. But, as it happens, CPI is the one we've chosen as the default. If we change our minds, we don't have to default to it forevermore. It's up to us. > Are you blaming others for the way you think? I don't think. You do enough of that for all of us.…

> We can use whatever source of inflation we want. Nobody is selecting for us. But, as it happens, CPI is the one we've chosen as the default. If we change our minds, we don't have to default to it forevermore. It's up to us. a) Who, specifically, is "we" in this context? b) What is your information source for these facts? > Beyond interest rates, it doesn't mean much to Average Joe. What is your information source f…

How to forcefully remote-terminate the Interest service in a Human 101.

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#386

Post by mistermann »

tsimionescu wrote: post #217
randomdata wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, "we" did not pick it, someone else picked it "on our behalf" With a gun to your back, eh? We can use whatever source of inflation we want. Nobody is selecting for us. But, as it happens, CPI is the one we've chosen as the default. If we change our minds, we don't have to default to it forevermore. It's up to us. > Are you blaming others for the way you think? I don't think. You do enough of that for all of us.…

People discuss inflation because everyone from the Economist to Yellen to the President brings up inflation numbers whenever people start feeling their COL increase, or when people demand better state services etc. It is one of the most widely publicized economic indicators, along with GDP, unemployment rate, and foreign debt. But in many of these discussions, it is deliberately being presented as equivalent to COL,…

How to manufacture reality (define and coordinate human beliefs) 101.

It is amazing how effective and resilient these techniques are, if one cannot see the layers within layers. Well, it's still amazing even then.

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#387

Post by huntoa »

"Inflation, the wrong concept is to think of it as a single number, it is a multi-dimensional number. You have inflation for stock, real estate, food, energy. The policy makers bundle this into a single number, which is very misleading." - Didier Sornette; Oct 11, 2023; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbU70IA4Z_w

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#388

Post by mistermann »

tastyfreeze wrote: post #243
mistermann wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With inflation, we want to know about the change in value of the dollar only. By "we", you are referring to you and others who want to know only this. Some people (not many) want to know what is going on comprehensively, and in fact . For example: I would like to know if there is any strategic changing of formulas to improve appearances going on, like there has been at pretty much every single job I have ever worke…

General rule of people. If you have seen it at work it is happening in government. Being a public servant doesn't change human nature.

Changing human nature seems rather analogous to the difficulty of nuclear fusion, and I suspect it is similarly powerful/useful if a trick could be found to accomplish it. At least we're trying with nuclear fusion.

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#389

Post by latency-guy2 »

ben_w wrote: post #244
latency-guy2 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So a strawman. You set up the premise, you set up your misunderstanding, and then expect everyone else to follow your misunderstanding. You've even redefined what a "fiscal conservative" would actually do (if you were the one defining it). Then you pulled in "libertarian" out of nowhere. Which is an obvious set up for another strawman, so lets lean into it. Whats a "libertarian"?

I have no skin in this because I don't live in the USA and don't want to, but no, everything in the comment you replied to falsifies "So a strawman". You can be wrong without being a strawman. When every example you have of X is Y, it's not a "strawman" to say "all X are Y" — when you're wrong like that, it's a black swan.

> everything in the comment you replied to falsifies "So a strawman".

No it doesn't, user exclaims their ignorance and your follow up emboldens their ignorance does not make a QED.

Re: Summers: Inflation Reached 18% in 2022 Using the Government's Previous Formula

#390

Post by tonymet »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #207
tonymet wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some aspects have improved, and others have declined. Home entertainment has more options, we spend more time at the TV and computer. Other aspects of life have declined. It's challenging because there are qualitative and aesthetic aspects to the process, so it takes some discussion to come up with a good understanding. Regardless CPI is misleading. The amount of time spent working over a lifetime to support the fami…

What specifically has declined? When I compare life that my grandparents had to now it is absurdly better in every way.

Could I ask what parts you favor?
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