Earlier today we pointed out a curious divergence [6]: while owner equivalent rent, the measurement of imputed costs of renting, has risen to the highest since the Lehman failure, total non-shelter core CPI continues to decline. What is notable is that OER amounts to 23.9% of the CPI basket - as such it is the single largest determinant of inflation as measured by the BLS. And yet everything else, hedonically adjusted of course, keeps falling. By how much? And do you agree with the BLS' estimates of inflation? To answer these not so important questions, here is the full CPI basket, broken down by weighings, and by annual change.
At first blush, a lot of the "inflationary" assumptions shown below make little if any sense, but then again who are we to argue with the Arima-X-1 seasonal adjustment juggernaut of a few good Econ PhDs.
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