In the type of school spike goes to they mostly teach basic abc's, and how to wipe properly, just how to function, and try to live a "normal" life despite his obvious disabilities.
One line caught my eye in an article at zerohedge about gov't tinkering with cpi in order to save on cost of living indexing. That line was "... "When an agency keeps raw data hidden from outside inspection (BLS deems raw pricing data as confidential and thus exempt from FOIA)" http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-...federal-government-over-150-billion-1998-2012
Which begs the question as to "why" the government would hide the data it is using to calculate cost of living. Kooks like Ricter will ignore that, shout "it's a conspiwacy" as snark, but not be able to answer it either.
More importantly, why are billions of prices posted online, from tens of thousands of retailers, the source data for the MIT BPP, also being hidden? So that they can publish inflation reports that largely echo the government's reports?
First, the data colleced by the BPP isn't hidden at all. It's available from Price Stats (you can purchase it through State Street). Second, to quote Price Stats, Depending on the country, the items are different (subject to availability). They exclude items like rent, utilities, a good deal of produce and meats (though not all), and other items not captured in an online environment (like medical expenses, ex medicine). Additionally, items are picked off via same link price points and not subject to size or SKU differentials. For example, if the bot goes out and gets the price of chicken breasts at $2.99 each, if poultry providers begin to provide less chicken for the $ per pound, that isn't taken into account ("down ouncing" isn't monitored), nor are changes in quality ever a consideration. Oh, and services are almost entirely not covered. Long story short, the methodology that the BPP pulls from is nowhere near what the BLS pulls (as far as we know). It is quite literally, comparing apples to oranges, and has it's own data issues.
CPI 0.0%, Exp. -0.1%, CPI ex- food and energy 0.2%, Exp. 0.1% CPI food index up 3.1% in 12 months Rising prices: shelter index, airline fares, household furnishings, medical care, recreation, personal care, tobacco, and new vehicles We're getting close to Thanksgiving, though. It's about time for Ricter to start posting some circulars and showing us where we can get cheap/free turkey deals.
I hope so. Otherwise we're all going to be sitting at the table pounding our forks and knives on it chanting "We want Turkey"
Airlines say airfares are up three percent and the bls says they are down three percent for calculating the cpi. http://davidstockmanscontracorner.c...y-says-ltm-air-fares-up-3-5-bls-index-down-3/ prima facie evidence the whole thing is one big scam