Last edited Fri Mar 21, 2025, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)
Right... compared to 2010s?
Pre-economic crisis?
'90s?
CPI data series:
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
Click on the link,
near the top right side is "More Formatting Options". Click on that
On the left side of the page that appears, click on these checkboxes:
Original Data Values, 12-Month Percent Change.
Change the "Specify Year Range" to 1947 (or whatever) to 2025
Click Retrieve Data.
If you want to find the inflation rate for a particular time period, e.g. the 1950's as an example:
Looking at original data values, e.g.
Jan. 1950: 23.51, Jan. 1960: 29.37
one can calculate the average inflation of the 1950's as 29.37/23.51 = 1.249, that is, prices increased 1.249 fold over that decade (a nearly 25% price increase)
The average annual percent increase over those 10 years is ( 1.249^(1/10) - 1 ) * 100% = 2.25%/year
The purchasing power isn't there anymore and I can't find any economist (unless it's under lock n' key) to erode that inert inflation that we're stuck with.
It's been explained upthread why economists and the Fed think a little bit of inflation is desirable, and I have no quarrel with them.
The main reason I showed the last 13 months in my previous reply is because I had those graphs handy, most people are interested in how we've been doing lately, and because I saw a complete mischaracterization of recent inflation (not in your post but elsewhere), and I wanted to present the data to clear that up.
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