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A comment on Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus. Parent comment

Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by QuesnayJr on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @01:14PM (#22477139)
They started raising rates but then Trump successfully bullied the Fed.

Though inflation had remained low, so it's not clear that it was necessary to raise rates.

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Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by seanmcdirmid on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @01:33PM (#22477353)
Inflation remains low? Seriously, I have no idea how they are computing that rate when asparagus is $4.99/pound these days. It seems like low rates feed the housing bubble nicely, and if housing costs were more adequately represented in the CPI, it would be much higher.
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Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by QuesnayJr on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @01:50PM (#22477557)
Housing costs are reflected in CPI, as imputed rent. I couldn't find the exact weights with a quick search, but IIRC housing costs are around a quarter of the basket. Asparagus is less than that.
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Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by throw0101a on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @03:05PM (#22478249)
* https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA

If you doubt the official numbers, the Billion Prices Project goes out scrapes price data, and it matched pretty well with the CPI:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Billion_Prices_project

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