Politics

Peter Schiff on Unacknowledged Inflation

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Here's a video from investment guru and author Peter Schiff which argues that the federal government chronically undercounts inflation.

It's an interesting piece, whether you agree with Schiff that consumer prices are obviously rising faster than official inflation rates calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (just going to the BLS' website is enough to convince you they have no idea of what they're doing). The rate for November 2012 came in under 2 percent and Ben Bernanke has pledged to keep money loose as a goose as long as the inflation rates stays below 2.5 percent or so.

Schiff starts out by granting that all the money that has been pumped into the system via fiscal and monetary stimulus should have resulted in inflation. Indeed, stimulatarians such as Paul Krugman argue that the lack of inflation in official numbers proves that the economy needs even more money pumped into it. Schiff says that the Consumer Price Index is created in such a way that it's missing rising prices.

Like I said, whether you agree with him about that main point, you'll find a lot of interesting stuff above.