Here is an interesting table that compares prices of select items in the US in 1999 (before) and in 2009 (after) or over a period of ten years.
The table shows that prices don't move up or down uniformly and are relative (some prices move more than the others).
Over the decade, most of the prices of goods or services had been higher although some were lower.
Prices reflect an amalgam of factors: government policies, supply demand or market dynamics, productivity, globalization, innovation, competition, demographics, cultural and others.
Would it not be a puzzle as to how these widely variant figures can be cobbled or aggregated as simplified statistical measures that are deemed by the officialdom and the public as accurately representing "inflation"?
Nevertheless these are the same tools used by central planners to determine and effect political and economic policies. No wonder the laws of unintended consequences exist.
As Mark Twain once observed, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
The table shows that prices don't move up or down uniformly and are relative (some prices move more than the others).
Over the decade, most of the prices of goods or services had been higher although some were lower.
Prices reflect an amalgam of factors: government policies, supply demand or market dynamics, productivity, globalization, innovation, competition, demographics, cultural and others.
Would it not be a puzzle as to how these widely variant figures can be cobbled or aggregated as simplified statistical measures that are deemed by the officialdom and the public as accurately representing "inflation"?
Nevertheless these are the same tools used by central planners to determine and effect political and economic policies. No wonder the laws of unintended consequences exist.
As Mark Twain once observed, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
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