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The "Economists Monkeying With The CPI" Debate
A popular belief in hard money internet commentary is that economists are conspiring to lower reported inflation. The advantage of this is to mislead voters and to reduce cost-of-living adjustments paid by the government. Admittedly, there are cases in emerging markets where there is widespread skepticism about government inflation statistics, and the government inflation numbers do not appear to align with market data. As such, I label this as a “misunderstanding,” as I accept that CPI numbers probably have been fudged somewhere. However, the usual case in developed countries is that statistical agencies are ... (full story)