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A comment on U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession. Parent comment

Re:U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Rec... by xxpor on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @11:53AM (#23020657)
This is a good point. CPI is very good at missing the classes of products that have seen massive price increases: housing, education, and other large assets.

For everyone who will respond "oh but CPI has a housing component": https://slate.com/business/2014/02/housing-inflation-the-cpi...

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Re:U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Rec... by esoterica on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @05:56PM (#23024898)
Using rents and imputed rents and not home values is the correct way to include housing prices. When you buy a house you are not only paying for a place to live, you are also speculating on a financial asset. The CPI doesn't measure investment prices (eg. it doesn't include stock values) so to isolate the true cost of housing as a separate metric from the speculative value of the investment, it looks at imputed rent instead.
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Re:U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Rec... by lisper on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @03:26PM (#23023127)
Health care.
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