Earlie, LOL! You seem to be ascribing some political motivation to changes in the calculations, and I can't go there with you.
If measurements were made the same way they were decades ago and didn't evolve and metamorphose from time to time, they probably wouldn't be very useful to the people who rely on them.
Details about how the various BLS reports on PPI, CPI, unemployment, labor costs, productivity, etc., are compiled and what they measure are available on the BLS website--pages and pages of them, if anyone is interested.
However, if you are implying (and I suspect that you are) that the statistics or the way they are gathered or disseminated are based on political considerations, or that politicians have anything to do with those figures until the minute they are released, I disagree there. Politics are not allowed to enter into the process at all, and the head person and all employees of BLS are strictly isolated--on purpose-- from politicos. They are even prohibited from trading in the futures markets. They don't change the way inflation is measured to suit the current Administration over at the White House, trust me.
Am married to a government statistician myself (not BLS)--real nerdy and couldn't care less about politics and knows fully well how imperfect/misleading/incomplete statistics can be. <<gg>> |
