An exercise I like to do sometimes when trying to spot the difference between price inflation and monetary inflation is measure the price using something else.

For example, a decade ago my house cost $400k Also a decade ago a carton of eggs cost $2 Today my house is worth $800k And the carton of eggs is worth $4

In other words, they both doubled in price. Coincidence? Did the eggs change? Probably not. Did chickens change? Probably not. Chicken farms? Nope.

In other words, in 2013 my house cost 200,000 cartons of eggs. And in 2023 my house still costs 200,000 cartons of eggs.

Now I get this isn't a perfect measurement. The actual price of eggs does fluctuate with supply and demand. Housing prices fluctuate with supply and demand in the short term.

But it does put into perspective how much of price inflation is due to the expansion of the money supply vs supply and demand.

(turns out eggs make a pretty good unit of account but they're a terrible store of value)

The frustrating thing about when people talk about inflation is that they almost always are referring to price inflation when complaining. But when you hear people talking about it you think about monetary inflation. The advancements in technology are constantly driving costs down and prices as well. This masks the effects of monetary inflation. Then you have shrinkflation where candy bars and goods are shrunk but the price remains the same. Products are diluted to avoid sticker shock. I get it when its just plebs talking but it is unacceptable that government officials purposefully confuse people. And don't get me started on the economists. 99% of them are snakes.

Good point. Not everything is on the fed

CPI is such a big lie!