Tag Archives: CPI

To hear Federal Reserve officials, politicians and mainstream financial media pundits tell it there is no inflation... but inflation defined correctly is rampant. In fact, it is at all-time record levels.

Only about 2% of 'investors' actually have gold in their portfolios and those that have done so have insufficient quantities to offset the future impact of inflation and to maximize their portfolio returns. New research, however, has determined a specific percentage to accomplish such objectives. Words: 1063

Merk Investments has ranked the attractiveness of the currencies of each G10 country based on the monetary and fiscal policies of each country and the strength of each country's economy to come up with what they call the Merk Currency Score™. This Score should prove invaluable in supporting investment decision-making across countries and regions. Go here to see where your country ranks. Words: 367

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.

The Fed has been trying to increase inflation, operating at the macro level, but what does inflation mean at the micro level — specifically to your household? Let's do some analysis of the Consumer Price Index, the best-known measure of inflation.

Higher prices (inflation) are a natural consequence of our ever increasing monetary supply and the U.S. Department of Labor tracks those increases via a basket of common consumer goods which is known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) but reveals a major discrepancy with The Economist's Big Mac index. Why is that?

Inflation lurks in the shadows. It destroys value by gradually eroding real returns over time. It is financial death by a thousand cuts. Investors too often look at "the numbers" in their portfolio without asking what those numbers can actually buy over time. It's a classic mistake that John Maynard Keynes termed "money illusion."

Don’t be afraid of inflation. It is already here and there is nothing we can do about it. The effects will soon be obvious to all. Just make sure you are among those who are protected and prepared to profit.

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.