I have heard repeatedly on this forum that the federal "inflation" index does not include energy or food (or something to that effect). I was hoping that someone could point me towards an official definition or description of what these indices really entail. I'm thinking in particular of inflation, cost of living, and consumer price index. TIA!!

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 08, 2000

Answers

Try this link.

CPI

-- Teague Harper (tharper@cyberhighway.net), February 08, 2000.

Thanks, Teague, that's exactly what I was looking for as far as CPI. Does anyone have any ideas about similar sites for inflation or cost of living?? TIA, again.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 08, 2000.

Statistically speaking, you should check this site:Fed Stats

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 08, 2000.

Look under "money" in "Possible Impacts" link to Fed Stats. Inflation is increase in the money supply. CPI is affected by Inflation, productivity and other factors. COL (COLI) is affected by CPI, taxes, regulations. CPI realism is funky, COL is even more funky. It's all a guessing game in that only aproximations can be made. They can quote numbers to 5 decimal places, but 2.312345 +/- 1 means 3.3 to 1.3 -- forget the additional decimal places. Even the .3 is suspect.

For COLI various people do comparisons like how many hours work does it take to buy a "Happy Meal", etc. It's a can of worms.

If anyone has a good lead on a good, comprehensive COLI, I'd sure like to know.

-- A (A@AisA.com), February 08, 2000.

Thanks, everyone!

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 08, 2000.