>Dean Baker in Getting Prices Right explains the absurd
>implications of the Boskin estimate. I got a version
>of BDL's latest in garbled format so didn't read it closely,
>but it reminded me of the illustrious Cox and Alm. I'll
>see what Dean has to say about it. I sense BDL is crawling
>out on a weak limb. Hope he's got a safety net.
Well for one, Boskin & Co. didn't look at a single reason why the CPI might understate inflation, even though ex-BLS commish Janet Norwood said there were plenty of reasons to think it might (e.g., declining quality of some services). And for two, the membership of the Boskin commission was stacked so that only those with the highest known estimates of overstatement were appointed.
Doug