Inflation
10.84%
5 Year Avg. Annual Rate!
The Chapwood Index reflects the true
cost-of-living increase in America. Updated and released twice a year, it
reports the unadjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items
on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in
the nation.
It exposes why middle-class Americans —
salaried workers who are given routine pay hikes and retirees who depend on
annual increases in their corporate pension and Social Security payments —
can’t maintain their standard of living. Plainly and simply, the Index shows
that their income can’t keep up with their expenses, and it explains why they
increasingly have to turn to the government for entitlements to bail them out.
It’s because salary and benefit increases are
pegged to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which for more than a century has
purported to reflect the fluctuation in prices for a typical “basket of goods”
in American cities — but which actually hasn’t done that for more than 30
years.
The middle class has seen its purchasing
power decline dramatically in the last three decades, forcing more and more
people to seek entitlements when their savings are gone. And as long as pay
raises and benefit increases are tied to a false CPI, this trend will continue.
The myth that the CPI represents the increase
in our cost of living is why the Chapwood Index was created. What
differentiates it from the CPI is simple, but critically important. The
Chapwood Index:
Reports the actual price increase of the 500
items on which most Americans spend their after-tax money. No gimmicks, no
alterations, no seasonal adjustments; just real prices.
Shows how our dependence on the CPI is
killing our middle class and why citizens increasingly are depending upon
government entitlement programs to bail them out.
Claims to persuade Americans to become
better-educated consumers and to take control of their spending habits and
personal finances.
The inaccuracy of the CPI began in 1983,
during a time of rampant inflation, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
began to cook the books on its calculation in order to curb the increase in
Social Security and federal pension payments.
But the change affected more than
entitlements. Because increases in corporate salaries and retirement benefits
have traditionally been tied to the CPI, the change affected everything. And
now, 30 years later, everyone knows the long-term results. Ask anyone who relies
on a salary or Social Security or a pension and he’ll tell you his annual
increase in income doesn’t come close to his increase in expenses. What comes
in is less than what goes out — a situation that spells disaster for average
Americans.
DYI:
There is an entity that is far more powerful than
all of the world’s central banks combined.
His name is MR. MARKET! Central
banks can play this game far longer than most believe possible but in the end the
real market – not the one manipulated by central banks – interest rates will
rise. Mr. Market – a short hand name for
the REAL market place – in the end will drive rates upward catching up to the
real inflationary rate and eventually effecting interest rates ABOVE the true
inflationary rate. It appears to me this
has already begun with short term rates rising.
This will take years to push rates upward along with recessions pushing
rates down temporarily for the
duration of the economic downturn.
Yield as of 11-24-17
Interest rates as measured by 10 year
Treasury Bonds topped out in September of 1981 at 15.32% and appears to have bottomed out in July
2016 at 1.50%. When the next recession emerges; rates could very well fall below these historical lows temporarily
then resume rising due to all of the money printing mentioned earlier. Be as that may be, valuation and historically
rates are at lows never seen before in U.S. history! Helen Keller could easily see rates at sub
atomic low levels ramping bond prices to the top of the mountain.
The Chapwood Index reflects the true cost-of-living increase in America. Updated and released twice a year, it reports the unadjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation.
It exposes why middle-class Americans — salaried workers who are given routine pay hikes and retirees who depend on annual increases in their corporate pension and Social Security payments — can’t maintain their standard of living. Plainly and simply, the Index shows that their income can’t keep up with their expenses, and it explains why they increasingly have to turn to the government for entitlements to bail them out.
It’s because salary and benefit increases are pegged to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which for more than a century has purported to reflect the fluctuation in prices for a typical “basket of goods” in American cities — but which actually hasn’t done that for more than 30 years.
The middle class has seen its purchasing power decline dramatically in the last three decades, forcing more and more people to seek entitlements when their savings are gone. And as long as pay raises and benefit increases are tied to a false CPI, this trend will continue.
The myth that the CPI represents the increase in our cost of living is why the Chapwood Index was created. What differentiates it from the CPI is simple, but critically important. The Chapwood Index:Reports the actual price increase of the 500 items on which most Americans spend their after-tax money. No gimmicks, no alterations, no seasonal adjustments; just real prices.Shows how our dependence on the CPI is killing our middle class and why citizens increasingly are depending upon government entitlement programs to bail them out.
Claims to persuade Americans to become better-educated consumers and to take control of their spending habits and personal finances.
The inaccuracy of the CPI began in 1983, during a time of rampant inflation, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began to cook the books on its calculation in order to curb the increase in Social Security and federal pension payments.
But the change affected more than entitlements. Because increases in corporate salaries and retirement benefits have traditionally been tied to the CPI, the change affected everything. And now, 30 years later, everyone knows the long-term results. Ask anyone who relies on a salary or Social Security or a pension and he’ll tell you his annual increase in income doesn’t come close to his increase in expenses. What comes in is less than what goes out — a situation that spells disaster for average Americans.
DYI:
Governments the world over when unfunded
liabilities, debts, and on going spending become so onerous money printing
(digitally) is their last resort to maintain power. The U.S. is at the beginning stage of the
government’s end game of inflating off Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,
along with playing the world domination game with our oversized military. So far the Federal Reserve – it is a private
corporation and there are NO RESERVES – has effectively pounded down interest
rates far below the real rate of inflation enabling corporations and
governments to pay debts with inflated dollars.
There is an entity that is far more powerful than
all of the world’s central banks combined.
His name is MR. MARKET! Central
banks can play this game far longer than most believe possible but in the end the
real market – not the one manipulated by central banks – interest rates will
rise. Mr. Market – a short hand name for
the REAL market place – in the end will drive rates upward catching up to the
real inflationary rate and eventually effecting interest rates ABOVE the true
inflationary rate. It appears to me this
has already begun with short term rates rising.
This will take years to push rates upward along with recessions pushing
rates down temporarily for the
duration of the economic downturn.
Yield as of 11-24-17
Interest rates as measured by 10 year
Treasury Bonds topped out in September of 1981 at 15.32% and appears to have bottomed out in July
2016 at 1.50%. When the next recession emerges; rates could very well fall below these historical lows temporarily
then resume rising due to all of the money printing mentioned earlier. Be as that may be, valuation and historically
rates are at lows never seen before in U.S. history! Helen Keller could easily see rates at sub
atomic low levels ramping bond prices to the top of the mountain.
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