Unfortunately the CPI has been heavily degraded over time, especially over the prior three admins. Instead of calculating the cost of a set standard of living, it now calculates the cost of a declining standard of living. In turn the inflation adjusted GDP has been overstated.
Some links you might find of interest:
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/no-438-public-comment-on-inflation-measurement
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/consumer_price_index
http://www.shadowstats.com/primers-and-reports
FYI more info available on how the CPI, and therefore inflation adjusted GDP have been degraded.
Thank you. It’s a start (for me) ..... I was wondering out loud who exactly uses these numbers, and for what purpose.
I kept seeing periodically reports of such and such indicators which are supposedly telling us how economics is doing, and revisions of them (almost always) afterwards.
Nowadays it seems purely for academic/historic purpose, because nobody (in general public) can have trust in the numbers per se when they come out. Unless people keep and make charts.