So food and energy aren't "core" inflationary measures but pickup trucks are?

[Sematary]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Energy-costs-push-wholesale-apf-1497966758.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

How do people NOT pick up on this stuff? How can you include PICKUP TRUCKS in core inflation but not food and energy - the two things that are largest in most budgets.

[TonySutton]

I can understand pickup trucks being listed because many farmers and small business owners use pickup trucks. I do not understand why food and energy are not included.

[HOLLYWOOD]

I do not understand why food and energy are not included.Because the Money Masters and government don't want you to know how they rip us all off with the true hidden tax of inflation year after year after year.

[Bern]

http://www.shadowstats.com/imgs/sgs-cpi.gif?hl=ad&t= (http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts)

[oyarde]

Correct , with good reason .In the past four years , probably , the price of gasoline , milk , meat have doubled, electricity has sky rocketed , etc.

[Brian4Liberty]

At some point, the only thing they will measure in the "inflation" statistic is wages. And it will show massive deflation, even during hyper-inflation.

[oyarde]

At some point, the only thing they will measure in the "inflation" statistic is wages. And it will show massive deflation, even during hyper-inflation. Never considered that , but you are onto something , because wages are going nowhere . They do not have to with as many people available as there are for any job opening ... How many people have gotten significant raises in the past three years ? Hs it kept up with energy and food increases ?? Extremely doubtful ...

[kpitcher]

Aren't cost of living increases for Soc Security tied to the official Inflation figures?

[Brian4Liberty]

Never considered that , but you are onto something , because wages are going nowhere . They do not have to with as many people available as there are for any job opening ... How many people have gotten significant raises in the past three years ? Hs it kept up with energy and food increases ?? Extremely doubtful ...

For the past twenty years, the preferred method of manipulating the inflation numbers (by Alan Greenspan) was to deflate wages to offset price increases resulting from monetary inflation. Artificially increasing the supply of labor (and reducing labor demand) in the US was how they accomplished it.

[flightlesskiwi]

At some point, the only thing they will measure in the "inflation" statistic is wages. And it will show massive deflation, even during hyper-inflation.

i believe you are correct.

and i wonder how many people will actually "catch" what they're doing.

[Zippyjuan]

Food and energy are not left out of inflation meaasures. They are left out of ONE measure of inflation. Food and energy prices can be volitile seasonally so they also publish an inflation index without them to give a better gage of the overall rate of inflation- this is more valuable in trying to see what is really happening to prices. Then it further can get broken down by producer prices and retail prices.
The government releases both the "core" (without food and energy) and the broader measure at the same time.


Measuring inflation in an economy requires objective means of differentiating changes in nominal prices on a common set of goods and services, and distinguishing them from those price shifts resulting from changes in value such as volume, quality, or performance. For example, if the price of a 10 oz. can of corn changes from $0.90 to $1.00 over the course of a year, with no change in quality, then this price difference represents inflation. This single price change would not, however, represent general inflation in an overall economy. To measure overall inflation, the price change of a large "basket" of representative goods and services is measured. This is the purpose of a price index, which is the combined price of a "basket" of many goods and services. The combined price is the sum of the weighted average prices of items in the "basket". A weighted price is calculated by multiplying the unit price of an item to the number of those items the average consumer purchases. Weighted pricing is a necessary means to measuring the impact of individual unit price changes on the economy's overall inflation. The Consumer Price Index, for example, uses data collected by surveying households to determine what proportion of the typical consumer's overall spending is spent on specific goods and services, and weights the average prices of those items accordingly. Those weighted average prices are combined to calculate the overall price. To better relate price changes over time, indexes typically choose a "base year" price and assign it a value of 100. Index prices in subsequent years are then expressed in relation to the base year price.[11] While comparing inflation measures for various periods one has to take into consideration the base effect as well.

Inflation measures are often modified over time, either for the relative weight of goods in the basket, or in the way in which goods and services from the present are compared with goods and services from the past. Over time, adjustments are made to the type of goods and services selected in order to reflect changes in the sorts of goods and services purchased by 'typical consumers'. New products may be introduced, older products disappear, the quality of existing products may change, and consumer preferences can shift. Both the sorts of goods and services which are included in the "basket" and the weighted price used in inflation measures will be changed over time in order to keep pace with the changing marketplace.[citation needed]

Inflation numbers are often seasonally adjusted in order to differentiate expected cyclical cost shifts. For example, home heating costs are expected to rise in colder months, and seasonal adjustments are often used when measuring for inflation to compensate for cyclical spikes in energy or fuel demand. Inflation numbers may be averaged or otherwise subjected to statistical techniques in order to remove statistical noise and volatility of individual prices.[citation needed]

When looking at inflation, economic institutions may focus only on certain kinds of prices, or special indices, such as the core inflation index which is used by central banks to formulate monetary policy.[citation needed]

Most inflation indices are calculated from weighted averages of selected price changes. This necessarily introduces distortion, and can lead to legitimate disputes about what the true inflation rate is. This problem can be overcome by including all available price changes in the calculation, and then choosing the median value.[28]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation

[Anti Federalist]

Because the Money Masters and government don't want you to know how they rip us all off with the true hidden tax of inflation year after year after year.

The same reason the unemployment numbers are rigged.