this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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me_irl
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I thought the consumer price index was based on retail prices?
Maybe I dont actually know what I'm talking about, but I highly doubt the nation's top economists care what consumers are paying
That's the entire concept, though? Inflation is the increase in the price of goods and services, so if they don't care about it, they picked the wrong profession. Taking note of it doesn't necessarily mean they care about the wellbeing of the average person. It affects spending and the profitability and whatever else of corporations and therefore the wealthy overlords.
Most of their metrics concern things that disproportionally benefit the rich. We're talking about the economists who say low unemployment rates are a bad thing because it can contribute to inflation.
The goods and services they care about are commodity prices and btb services. They don't care about retail prices. Those are a tiny sliver of their metrics, if they're used at all.
That's why you might see the price of something double and yet "inflation" is still in the single digits. Because the commodity prices didn't double, the corporations are just scalping them.
I get what you’re saying, but it’s a fact that official inflation numbers are based on the consumer price index, which is about retail prices. Of course that affects business’ bottom line and profitability? Not giving a fuck about consumers being happy is one thing but that’s not the point when it’s about companies making money. They have to sell it to a consumer to make money in the end.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/economy_14419.htm
This states they pay attention to multiple measures of costs for individuals as well as producers.
I wonder how the CPI is weighted with other factors like commodity prices.
If you look at basic descriptions like this,
https://www.federalreserve.gov/economy-at-a-glance-inflation-pce.htm
it only mentions Personal Consumption Expenditures and Consumer Price Index.