20 Dec 2017 12:12 am
Inflation is low because consumer discretionary goods have, for the most part, gone down in price. I know this for a fact because I keep a watchlist on a large selection of items on my Amazon account, and virtually all of them have dropped 15-40% over the last 3 years. Any increase in consumer staple prices are muted and suppressed by the "Amazon effect," as I like to call it.
Then we have the BLS methodology that attributes a certain portion of price increases to "increase in quality of goods."
Finally, real estate is an asset and not a "consumption good." I agree this metric is flawed for 90%+ of the people, but nevertheless the phenomenal rise in monthly rent is NOT factored into inflation.
Then we have the BLS methodology that attributes a certain portion of price increases to "increase in quality of goods."
Finally, real estate is an asset and not a "consumption good." I agree this metric is flawed for 90%+ of the people, but nevertheless the phenomenal rise in monthly rent is NOT factored into inflation.