Remember there was a US Government Shutdown in October?
Has the Labor Dept. ‘adjusted’ the numbers to make their boss happy?
Last time they made their boss unhappy?
Somebody got fired, eh?
That kind of cooling reflects the best inflation report since President Donald Trump took office. However, unlike prior inflation reports, this one lacked data, especially many of the month-to-month changes in inflation in certain sectors, due to the six-week government shutdown that prevented data collection in October.
Economists said the headline figures were likely skewed lower by quirks in how the report was compiled, with several noting that officials did not begin gathering prices until the second half of November — a period that may have captured Thanksgiving discounts without fully reflecting higher prices earlier in the month, when promotions are typically scarcer.
Inflation in those categories did not stop rising, but the zeroed out data appears to be a technical quirk in how the data was collected and reported, according to Omair Sharif, who leads forecasting firm Inflation Insights.
Since housing costs normally rise steadily and make up a large share of the CPI, recording them as flat for a month artificially pulls down the overall inflation number, making inflation look cooler than it likely is in reality, he said.
“I would call this a rather dirty report,” said Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America. “It’s very hard to come away with any serious conclusions.”….
Note…
Ok?
The people in the Washington Post piece DO think the report WAS ‘adjusted’ to makew the boss happy….
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