re: Inflation report is in

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I know right, americans just imagine all of this. they got tricked by democrats 

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The problem is thinking democrats are going to fix it.

What blue state policies have been so successful that you want to implement them nationwide?

Explain to me in detail, and with logic, how democrats are going to solve all of our economic woes, and I'll rescind my MAGA membership and start whining about everything like you guys.

All of you know democrats aren't the answer. You just can't say it because that will be admitting that Trump isn't as bad as you want him to be.

You operate under the delusion that it can't get worse, even though everything the democrats have done in the past 20 years tells you it will.

Nothing Trump has done is worth surrendering the country to democrats, but you just can't look at the big picture. You're blind to everything not in your face.

You've taken the country out of the frying pan and threw us directly into the fire, but you are too foolish to see it.

OK, the economy is bad under Trump. Tell me with facts and logic how the democrats will make it better. If you can't, then your reaction to Trump has been counterproductive.

If democrats aren't the solution to Trump, then you have to admit your reaction was short-sighted. This isn't trying something new hoping it works. We know exactly what we will get with democrats. We saw it not even 2 years ago.

It's very basic logic, but you conservatives struggle with anything not on the surface.

Hello sir,

One. I am not a conservative. 2, I voted straight R, that includes Tommy Tuberville who I think Is a clown, but is less bad than Doug jones. I don’t think anyone believes democrats will do a better job. This was a frick you to Trump and Republicans in congress for starting a war and actin uninterested in doing anything about affordability/inflation. You will never understand it or like it, but it happened. Republicans could have stopped it from happening by doing a better job, and yes now we all suffer more.

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Eating out


Who is even doing this anymore?

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Me. My wife and I are going out tonight.

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Why is the BLS using HS for clothes?

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Styles change. Items constantly disappear and get replaced with something not quite the same.

When BLS can’t find the exact shirt it priced last month, it has to compare the old item with a substitute. If the substitute costs more, the question is how much of the difference is a real price increase and how much is a better product (different fabric, brand tier, construction).

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Interesting premise.
Run the w/ & w/o numbers for 2025-26.

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I thought you'd want to do this. But since you didn't, I asked AI "What would CPI look like today with and without hedonic scoring?"

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"What would CPI look like today with and without hedonic scoring?"

Almost no difference.
The latest CPI-U is up 3.7 percent over the 12 months to September 2026, at an index level of 336.940. Without hedonic adjustment it would most likely read 3.6-3.8%, and quite possibly the same.

BLS’s own estimate:
BLS economists estimated that hedonic models used outside shelter and apparel have raised the annual change in the all-items CPI by only about 0.005 percent per year. That is a 2008 estimate, so the sign and size may have shifted as coverage grew. BLS also says hedonic adjustments in shelter and apparel usually increase the rate of change of those indexes. So by BLS’s account, removing hedonics would not raise the headline number and could nudge it down slightly. This is the agency’s view of its own method, not an independent audit.

Why the effect is small:
Hedonics only touch some categories. Around the early 2000s, hedonic adjustment outside shelter covered about 2.9 percent of the CPI. A 2019 article counted at least 21 item categories using it, so coverage has grown but is still a minority of the basket. Even if hedonics pulled those categories down by 5 points a year (my illustration, not a sourced figure), the all-items effect would be about 0.15 points (2.9% × 5).

Where critics see a bigger effect:
Wolf Richter argues hedonic adjustment has suppressed the CPI for new vehicles over the past 25 years and made consumer electronics decline nearly every year. The effect is real at the category level, but it is diluted at the headline level.

The gap between 3.7% and what you might feel at the checkout is driven mostly by weights, gasoline (up 28.9% year over year in the Chicago-area data) and shelter, not by hedonics.

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In my opinion, hedonic scoring sucks.
Not because it changes the numbers, but because it doesn't.

Computers, electronics, appliances, home appointments, etc. are far more performance-affordable than was the case in the recent, intermediate, and distant past.

For example, appropriate hedonic scoring could easily track the value of a natural stone countertop now vs 30+ yrs ago. 30 years ago ago, those materials were prohibitively expensive. So much so, that solid surface countertops made of materials like "Corian" were common, even in new construction upper end homes.

Now, "Corian" is considered "cheap" even in mid-range construction. Pricewise it's about 50% of the comparable cost 30 years ago. HS accounts for none of that. Zip.