Tag Archives: Billion Prices Project

Exactly what is inflation, and how do we measure it? It is very important to investors, savers, and people in general, that we understand.

Costs of living rise and fall differently in different areas. Do you think that prices in Beverly Hills, CA change the same as prices in Gary, IN? Of course not! The Chapwood Index reports the unadjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation.

Shadowstats presents what they claim to be the original methodology used by the government to calculate the rate of inflation in the U.S. but Shadowstats' John Williams is not calculating inflation any differently. He is not using the 1980s or 1990s methodology... [Instead,] all he's is doing is taking the CPI data and adding on an arbitrary constant to make it look like inflation is higher!

Whenever the BLS posts their monthly CPI there's always the same response from critics that the index is flawed. That's fine. I think a healthy dose of skepticism regarding government data is perfectly good. So let's take a look at some independent gauges to see where prices are.

Inflation is a significant measurement for the economic health of countries around the world but rates are often reported weeks after data is collected. To address this problem, two professors at MIT Sloan School of Management have launched the Billion Prices Project which is the first website to publish daily price indexes and provide real-time inflation estimates around the world. Words: 825