Heading into the November presidential election, one of the biggest issues on voters' minds is the economy. According to a new poll, 73% of Americans say strengthening it is their top concern.
Those two numbers you are asking about (“true rate” or the abstraction), for the recent past, pretty much work out to the same value.
The CPI excludes some volatile categories, but it’s not a trick, in this case.
The tactic of bringing up that the CPI excludes some categories, and implying that if it did include them, it would show more inflation than what it does (including the pretty significant spike in 2022)… that actually is a trick, actually a pretty subtle and clever one. To make people think the economy is getting worse, when it’s getting better.
Edit: I made a top level comment with the guidebook to some of the other tricks
I didn’t actually know that, thank you. Yeah, I know there is some commonly cited “inflation” number that excludes some volatile categories but over the last couple years that actually doesn’t change the bottom line - but yeah, it makes sense that CPI would include all the common consumer goods regardless of volatility.
Honestly I have to admit I’ve become a little bit jaded with hundreds of times looking some particular claim up and learning about things and finding that someone who was swearing some particular thing, was lying; and I’ve gotten lazy about it as a result
It’s almost as if all the “Biden ruined the economy” trolls are consistently not being 100% truthful and straightforward about things
Those two numbers you are asking about (“true rate” or the abstraction), for the recent past, pretty much work out to the same value.
The CPI excludes some volatile categories, but it’s not a trick, in this case.
The tactic of bringing up that the CPI excludes some categories, and implying that if it did include them, it would show more inflation than what it does (including the pretty significant spike in 2022)… that actually is a trick, actually a pretty subtle and clever one. To make people think the economy is getting worse, when it’s getting better.
Edit: I made a top level comment with the guidebook to some of the other tricks
Anyway, CPI includes both food and fuel.
I didn’t actually know that, thank you. Yeah, I know there is some commonly cited “inflation” number that excludes some volatile categories but over the last couple years that actually doesn’t change the bottom line - but yeah, it makes sense that CPI would include all the common consumer goods regardless of volatility.
“Core inflation”, as the name suggests, excludes some things that are encompassed by CPI. But I think it’s cited much less often than CPI.
Honestly I have to admit I’ve become a little bit jaded with hundreds of times looking some particular claim up and learning about things and finding that someone who was swearing some particular thing, was lying; and I’ve gotten lazy about it as a result
It’s almost as if all the “Biden ruined the economy” trolls are consistently not being 100% truthful and straightforward about things