At 06:19 PM 1/19/02 -0800 Nick Arnett wrote:
>While it is true that change in the cost of living and inflation amount to
>the same thing across an economy with a common currency, the whole reason
>that people measure cost of living is to make comparisons with other
>regions. Inflation doesn't vary by region, cost of living does.
>
>In other words, there's a darn good reason that there are two different
>terms.
O.k. let me add some insight here.
I work for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the Producer Price
Index Program (PPI). Its my *job* to measure inflation.
First of all, "inflation" and "cost of living" are very much
interchangeable concepts. Indeed, our sister program, the Consumer Price
Index Program (CPI) produces the most commonly used measure of inflation,
the CPI-U (CPI for all Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers). The
CPI produces its number by measuring the increase in the cost of living by
measuring the increase in the consumer price for a fixed basket of consumer
goods and services in a sample of urban areas.
This, however, in no way precludes the fact that inflation/cost-of-living
rates do vary a lot by region, and the CPI pubishes a host of other numbers
that help reflect this - based on different metropolitan areas and
different individual goods and services.
John D.
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Our campaign against international terrorism does not represent some
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