Re: [SLUG-POL] Facist economic model, wealth v. income, Jackson v. Bank all over again, China -- WAS: one-sided political figure jabs?

From: John Pedersen (john@jmp-systems.com)
Date: Sun Sep 12 2004 - 06:00:47 EDT

>
> That's debatable. I don't think inflation numbers are false

CPI (Consumer Price Index) is published by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Does that qualify as government?

It's based on a basket of goods and services that people buy. For
over a decade, they have been using a system where the various prices
are "weighted" such that anything whose price goes up gets a lower
weight, and something whose price goes down gets a higher weight.

When an average person thinks about "tracking the value of a basket
and goods and services", are they expecting that little trick?

When oil prices and food prices started soaring, they simply took
energy and food out, and created a "core" cpi. More obfuscation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also makes "intervention adjustments"
when something spikes up too high and they decide it's lousing up
their figures.

How about the effects of technology? Prices are dropping through the
floor for computers (thank you, China), and so this feeds into the
CPI. Because it's a FALLING price, give it more weight, ok?

How much should the falling prices of cellphones and computers affect
the CPI. It's a complex question, and the "keepers of the CPI" get to
decide. And the government is NOT a disinterested, objective
observer. If you recall, politicians are elected or not elected on
things like CPI figures, etc.

That's just a sample. Google for more.

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