Official inflation statistics are biased. Substitution effects and quality changes are problems that cannot be resolved objectively, even with the most sophisticated statistical methods. It may be that the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) overestimates inflation. There are also good arguments for a downward bias. It may also be that the errors in measuring consumer price inflation are negligible. However, even if official statistics show unbiased average inflation for all goods included in the index, problems arise.

Property and Justice: A Liberal Theory of Natural Rights
by Billy Christmas
Routledge, 2021; xii + 184 pp.

The Austro-libertarian movement has the better ideas. They continue to be discussed, elaborated, and intellectually defended. But how can the right ideas be implemented? What good is it to be right if the reality is left-wing? In fact, most of the population, or at least public opinion, seems to be drifting further and further to the left, with cancel culture, climate hysteria, a sprawling welfare state and ever higher taxes and levies.

Last year, Joseph Salerno cautioned against the use of year-over-year CPI inflation rate calculations.

This way of calculating the annual inflation rate is backward looking, because the most recent monthly rate is heavily outweighed by the previous eleven months’ rates.