Do you mean this reason: "Concepts and definitions of the money stock have evolved over time, reflecting changes in the regulatory and institutional environment. For example, the publication of the M3 monetary aggregate on the H.6 release was discontinued in March 2006. M3 did not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that was not already embodied in M2 and had not played a role in the monetary policy process for many years. Consequently, the Federal Reserve Board judged that the costs of collecting the underlying data and publishing M3 outweighed the benefits. Historical data on M3 and the components of M3 not included in M2 continue to be provided on the Federal Reserve Board's web site; these data were created as of March 2006 and are not updated."
Considering that M3 is the fuzziest number with the longest lag time, I was not surprised that the Fed stopped collecting it. Even if M1 and M2 data collection was automated (it might be already) the reporting and compilation would have such a lag time as to make Milton's idea a farce. As I recall the CPI has been "tuned" periodically ever since I can remember, although that memory is fading. Except for commodities like food and fuel, the elements that we spend our money on have changed, or at least the weighting has changed. More people buy airplane tickets than railroad tickets, more DVD's than 8-track tapes. Fortunately cigarette purchases are a smaller percent of our lives too. Even commodities have changed. How many people purchased bottled water 20 years ago? Some people argue that, except for commodities, the CPI has been over stating inflation because things like cars and computers are improving in quality and capabilities faster than their prices have increased. CPI, GDP, GNP, employment, etc. are all estimates. If you are going to base your decisions on them then you need to understand them for what they are and are not. If you dig deeper you usually find that they report both the un-normalized and normalized numbers. It is the users of the numbers that select which ones they reference to support their argument. They are like a good definition of accounting; Accounting is a fiction, but it is an agreed upon fiction. Oil producing countries take their payment in what ever currency the contract calls for. The price is only quoted in dollars. China is moving away from dollars for the same reason anyone diversifies. Duh. Do you know any company that is satisfied with only one customer? It is late and I am going home to feed the dogs and myself. -----Original Message----- From: Tony Cooper [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 27 June, 2008 17:13 To: Murray, Richard Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: Re: NPC: NMC: Oil futures bidded up by the Hedge Funds. And aboutthemonetary system... Why did the Fed discontinue reporting M3 in Mar 2006? I know the official reason. I want your view. Why has the US Government "tuned" the CPI, GDP, & employment numbers? If you use the methodology from the 70's the inflation rate is actually double what is being reported. Eliminating price spikes (such as dramatic rises in gasoline costs, etc) to "normalize" the inflation rate is simply playing with the numbers to make them say whatever suits the government. Remember that the dollar has no backing other then the faith the population puts in it. I wonder why oil producing countries don't want to be paid in dollars... I wonder why China is migrating away from dollars... It is absurd for the US government to borrow dollars from the Chinese to pay the US population $600 each to stimulate our economy. Tony << BIG SNIP>> _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
