If medical care costs and food costs are not counted in BLS data, does that mean I am paying too much for both? CPI Data: Precision ex-Accuracy Posted on Feb 21st, 2007 http://usmarket.seekingalpha.com/article/27671 Barry Ritholtz submits: Consumer prices rose more than expected last month, with big price gains coming in food and medical care. Surprise! Fortunately, these two items, along with energy prices, are totally irrelevant to our economy and personal consumption, and so don't matter all that much to the Federal Reserve. The increases in these two "non-essential items" were the biggest in 15 years. CPI rose 0.2%, following the 0.4% gain in December. Core prices rose 0.3%. Inflation ex-inflation was, as always, flat. On a related note, the BLS has changed the way they are reporting CPI data. Be sure to put this into the file marked Precision ex-Accuracy: The consumer price index for the first time will be carried out to three decimal places instead of one, a change that will allow inflation to be monitored more precisely. Previously, rounding sometimes led to misleading readings, as it could mean the difference between a change of, say, 0.2% and 0.3%. Reporting inaccurate inflation data to 3 decimals does run the slight risk of creating a false impression of accuracy where none in fact exists; however, the benefits of this change could avoid some of the goofier rounding errors we have seen over the years. Mathematically, it is possible to be precise but not accurate (and vice versa). Let's call this a modest improvement in BLS reporting and move on . . .
Its funny, today I was watching cnbc and they said that this number should not be a real problem, only reason why it was where it was was do to health care insurance and how much they have skyrocketed. Believe they said it was up 19% year over year. Guess thats why we have 47,000,000 people in the U.S without any type of coverage.
What a complete joke this is FOOD, MEDICAL CARE and ENERGY PRICES are IRRELEVANT. UNBELIEVABLE Consumer prices rose more than expected last month, with big price gains coming in food and medical care. Fortunately, these two items, along with energy prices, are totally irrelevant to our economy and personal consumption, and so don't matter all that much to the Federal Reserve.
Free food? Free medical care? Free school for your kids? Don't you have to be an illegal alien for that?
it is?? since when. I know I shop for food on a weekly basis and I can tell you everything is up from cereal all the way down to detergent. OJ special 2 for $6, just 4 months ago it was 2 for $5. Another $1.00 here and another $1.00 there adds up pretty quick. And I just shopped around for medical insurance, I'm getting prices as high as $500. Let me guess thats another statistic too.
Shit, that's the cheap OJ.. I buy organic OJ and I live in FL and it's more than that.. Medical insurance isn't too bad if you have a 'script for 2 kits of HGH per month.. Use the system in your favor.. hehe
What about property insurance for all you peeps in Florida? The premiums have gone up, what, 10 fold? What about property taxes for everyone here? Property taxes ARE OUT OF CONTROL. I'm paying $880 per month, and I built my own custom house (keeping the basis as low as possible).
It's insane!!!!! I opted out of buying a home three times within the last 6 months. i'm considering moving out of the state... Where do you live at? I"m here in St. Pete and being that we are just above sea level and all in flood zones, the insurance is THAT much higher...
Thanks for reminding me if I move East from CO, it won't be to FL. I wouldn't mind be close to the coast. Maybe Savanah, Charleston, etc.