Mario Goveia wrote: > I was surprised to read this as I did not recognize > two of the assertions made therein: a) that inflation > in the US is running at 5.1%, and b) that the US > excludes the cost of food and gasoline (petrol) in > calculating US inflation.
Mario, I do believe your absence from Goanet has done us all good. It is so nice to see you sticking only to the subject mater here. The first link to numbers you provided below is not directly from a Govt department. I guess you, like others here, do not trust US govt info anymore? http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx > Frequently asked questions from the US Bureau of Labor > Statistics about how the US consumer price index is > calculated: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm#Question_7 It is always interesting to read what official govt policy is. Some people go along happily with what their president/govt tells them. These people are usually the ones that pay for the mistakes of politicians. Others, who can monitor the effects of govt policy, stand to profit from the same mistakes. Let me give you an example. At every chance he gets, the US Sec of Treasury stands up and says that the US has an official "strong dollar" policy. Everyone who lives outside the US and who deals with US dollars knows that the US dollar is getting weaker by the day. There is money to be made with this info. Goans who have their salaries tied to the value of the US dollar are hurting. Those who are not, are enjoying boom times. Unfortunately, I do not have a site where you can read about this phenomena. I do however have a site that gives the basic info about how inflation is calculated in the US. It also gives some criticism (not by me ;-) on why the method is less than perfect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Consumer_Price_Index If you do not have the time to read the entire page, I understand. However, let me know your thoughts after you read the following excerpt from the link. "The core CPI index excludes goods with high price volatility, such as food and energy. This measure of core inflation systematically excludes food and energy prices because, historically, they have been highly volatile and non-systemic. More specifically, food and energy prices are widely thought to be subject to large changes that often fail to persist and do not represent relative price changes. In many instances, large movements in food and energy prices arise because of supply disruptions such as drought or OPEC-led cutbacks in production." While it may be difficult for the US govt to track food and energy prices, it is not difficult for me. Every time I am in the US, I get charged more for the same goods and services. I would not notice a 3% increase in prices. However, I do notice larger increases. For example, I remember paying less than $1 per gallon for petrol when I was in US college in the US in the 1990's. Last summer on my way to Disneyland, I paid $3.20 per gallon. Non-US financial institutions lending money to US businesses are using a 5.1% inflation rate to see if projects are viable. These are the institutions that do not have a financial crises on their hands today. Mervyn3.0 PS. Taking about Disneyland, how about the following? Hard to fathom. Disneyland Park in Anaheim, Calif., plans to close down the It's a Small World attraction for a 10-month renovation because the waterway boats are getting stuck. Loads that are heavier than those anticipated 43 years ago, when the ride opened, are causing the craft to bottom out. When there's a stuck boat, staff must go back into the attraction and lighten the load by asking one or two passengers to leave the boat. This is not happening because today's park patrons are getting fatter, Disneyland insists. The boats get stuck because "layers and layers" of thick glass-fibre have built up where maintenance teams have repeatedly repaired them. To avoid any hard feelings, customers who are asked to leave a boat are presented with food vouchers. Source: Los Angeles Times Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people. Go to Yahoo! Answers and share what you know at http://ca.answers.yahoo.com
