As life is becoming unaffordable for these Americans, official inflation data artfully papers over it. This arcane device impacts investments, Social Security benefits, and inflation-adjusted data, such as "real wages" & "real GDP."
Wolf Richter is the founder of Wolf Street Corp and the publisher of WolfStreet.com. Wolf has over twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and a VC-funded startup. He has a BA, MA, and MBA (UT at Austin). In his prior life, he worked in Texas and Oklahoma, including a decade as General Manager and COO of a large Ford dealership and its subsidiaries.