Authors:

  • Shane Greenstein

Excerpt

July/August 2022, Paper: "The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose just over 8% between May 2021 and April 2022. That grabbed headlines as the highest rate of inflation in four decades. A vast apparatus of government employees collects and collates prices for the CPI. The prices come from 75 U.S. cities, 6,000 urban households, and 22,000 retail establishments. Economic analysts already know announcing one number is misleading, but, frankly, that has not mattered while inflation was 2%–3% a year. Today’s column explains the precise sense in which the CPI is misleading, though with two angles in mind. First, what parts of the CPI are relevant to anybody who works at a technology firm, and which parts are irrelevant? Second, what does this trend mean for technology firms in the near term?" Read Via IEEE Computer Society

Non-HKS Harvard Faculty Author Website - Shane Greenstein