What is inflation? I believe this is the most important financial question a person can ask. I am constantly on a trek to better understand money and wealth. Here is some of what I've learned thus far: Per its original meaning: Inflation is not a rise in prices Inflation is a rise in the money … [Read more...] about The Most Important Financial Question You Must Ask
cpi
CPI Explained – Part 2 – Substitution
This picks up where a previous post left off. You may want to read that post first in order for this one make sense. Looking at the picture above, I can only imagine that this is the way that the following idea was made into government policy. The second major way BLS's CPI calculation policies … [Read more...] about CPI Explained – Part 2 – Substitution
CPI Explained – Part 1 – Hedonics
While the measurement of inflation varies wildly depending on which economist you talk to, here we will examine the official figures published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): CPI or Consumer Price Index. The purpose of publishing CPI is to measure inflation and/or deflation, the decreased … [Read more...] about CPI Explained – Part 1 – Hedonics
Lunch at the Fed
I recently attended a lunch discussion at the Fed building here in Denver hosted by the World Trade Center. The topic of discussion: The outlook for the U.S. Dollar. First, a Federal Reserve senior economist gave us an overview of what Fed is and how it works. Surprisingly, he was quite direct and … [Read more...] about Lunch at the Fed