Inflation Is So Much Worse Than We’re Told (Full Report)

Inflation Is So Much Worse Than We’re Told

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Executive Summary

• Why inflation is several percent higher than claimed
• The criticality of correctly weighting the CPI & how the current methodology is flawed
  • Case study using healthcare, one of the largest victims of underweighting in today’s CPI
• Why the Fed (erroneously) sees deflation and is making dangerously-flawed policy decisions as a result
• The 8-steps that will signal our progression into an inflation-induced financial crisis in the US
• Recommendations for preserving the purchasing power of your assets 

Full Report (for enrolled members only)

Provides a much deeper dive into the CPI, its flawed methodology, the likely implications of understating inflation, and strategies for individual investors than available in the public-only article. If you are a looking to protect the purchasing power of your current wealth, it’s important to understand the stealth tax your assets currently exposed to from the erroneously-low reported inflation rate.

Inflation is actually much higher than what the BLS claims it is; something that purchasers of college tuition, pharmaceuticals, or health insurance know all too well.

To give the BLS some credit, they must try and estimate a single rate of inflation that applies to everyone equally.  But that is a completely impossible task. An octogenarian living in Seattle on a meager pension and taking lots of prescription medications will have a totally different inflation experience than an 18 year old living in their parent’s basement eating Ramen noodles. 

But even after spotting the BLS some slack, there are some enormous and glaring errors in their methods that render the official inflation measure hopelessly – and dangerously – inaccurate. 

In this article, I am going to reveal how US inflation numbers are badly understated, how this practice short-changes institutions and fixed-income individuals alike, and why this means fiscal and inflationary train-wrecks are the most probable outcome for the US — and, by extension, the globe.

Why This is Important

As a refresher, inflation in the US is calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in a measure called the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. It is used by the Federal Reserve to justify its money printing policies, by the federal government to calculate cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for the entitlement programs (e.g., Social Security), and to set the interest rate on inflation-adjusted bonds known as TIPS. Indirectly, the CPI influences interest rates, the stock market, and a host of salary and pension negotiations each year.