PriceStats ®

PRICE IN A TRICE

The Economist. 06/23/2011
“If the inflationistas are right, where should they look for signs of accelerating price growth? Many are suspicious of official numbers: John Williams, the boss of an inflation-statistics website…”
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A BILLION PRICES NOW

The New Yorker. 05/30/2011
“Between official government statistics, industry surveys, and Wall Street forecasts, it often seems like we’re drowning in data, often of uncertain value. But consider the alternative. In the early…”
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Tracking Inflation: How Fast Are Prices Rising?

PBS NewsHour. 05/13/2011
“Now inflation. The government’s latest figures show prices made the biggest jump in any twelve month period since October 2008. But when gas and food are added inflation feels even higher to most Americans, and that presents…”
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Economists Find Faster, Cheaper Way to Measure Inflation

Scientific American. 05/11/2011
“Even in the information age, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics still gathers much of its data the old-fashioned way. Workers make phone calls to find out what dentists charge for pulling teeth, and they visit stores to write down the prices of CDs and Russet potatoes…”
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Bank to publish inflation data from internet

Financial Times. 05/04/2011
“Inflation data harvested from the internet will take its first big step into financial markets on Thursday after a bank agreed to publish real-time price indices developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology…”
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Billion Price Preview

The New York Times. 03/28/2011
“One indicator I’ve been tracking lately is the MIT Billion Price Index; it basically tracks the goods component of the CPI, but of course has higher frequency, so it’s kind of an early warning indicator…”
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New indications of inflation

Econbrowser. 02/20/2011
“The BLS reported on Thursday that the inflation rate as measured by the headline CPI has been 1.6% over the last year. Excluding food and energy, the inflation rate would be 1.0%. The MIT Billion Prices Project is recording a slightly higher inflation rate for the U.S. of about 2.5%…”
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The Billion Price Index

The New York Times. 02/18/2011
“Some commenters have been claiming that the MIT Billion Price Index is telling a very different story from the official Consumer Price Index. So I guess it’s worth pointing out that it really matches pretty well. What you need to realize is that the Billion Price Index, inevitably, only covers goods — not services. So it’s got a narrower focus than the CPI…”
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Innovator: Alberto Cavallo

Bloomberg Businessweek. 02/10/2011
“To track inflation, each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics canvasses businesses and records the price of, say, a 4.4-pound bag of golden delicious apples, among hundreds of other items. The agency dials land lines to survey how consumers spend their money. It’s essentially the same process the BLS has used for half a century. In a recent budget request, the agency admitted its methods are “increasingly out of touch” in the age of cell phones and e-commerce…”
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The Price is Right

MIT News. 01/14/2011
“Inflation is a crucial economic indicator, since rising prices can hurt consumers and trigger political discontent. It is also hard to measure. In the United States, Bureau of Labor Statistics employees track over 20,000 prices in person or via phone, which are then aggregated into the Consumer Price Index…”
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The real-time Inflation Calculator

The New York Times. 12/19/2010
“Measuring inflation is a time-consuming business: at the beginning of each month, government researchers across the country amass troves of data on prices for everything from shoes to milk to phones. Two weeks after the end of the month, the government releases gauges of inflation like the Consumer Price Index. But inflation hunters may now get an advance glimpse of the data…”
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Economists’ Programs are beating U.S. at tracking inflation

The Washington Post. 12/25/2010
“At 23,000 retailers and businesses in 90 U.S. cities, hundreds of government workers find and note prices on very precise products. And I’m not kidding when I say “very precise”… “
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Do we need Google to measure inflation?

Slate. 12/20/2010
“…This mind-numbingly tedious process goes on for a dizzying panoply of items: wine, takeaway meals, bedroom furniture, surgical procedures, pet dogs, college tuition, cigarettes, haircuts, funerals. When all of the prices are marked down, the workers submit forms that are collated, checked, and input into massive spreadsheets… “
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Billion Prices Now

Econbrowser. 11/17/2010
“Justin Lahart is among those calling attention to the Billion Prices Project of MIT Professors Roberto Rigobon and Alberto Cavallo. The basic idea of the Billion Prices Project is to automate search of websites around the world that report prices at which various vendors are offering to sell specific item…”
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A Way, Day by Day, of Gauging Prices

The Wall Street Journal. 11/10/2010
“Economists will dissect next Wednesday’s government report on consumer prices for any sign inflation is heating up—or cooling. But a pair of academics in Boston already has data they think show where prices went. For that matter, they claim to be able to track how prices fared …”
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