“I don’t recall seeing any good articles discussing inflation vs. deflation with enough attention to details. Such as: the distinction between tradable and non-tradable goods and the realization that American economy is 80% services and non-tradables; interplay between exchange rates, trade deficits, long-term interest rates, money supply, and Bretton Woods II; Phillips curve (unemployment vs. inflation); whether inflation = money supply = CPI, if not, why; monetary and fiscal tools available to the government beyond simple rate-fixing.

inflation is the ONLY way we can pay our debt commitments, most notably social security and medicare

Social security and medicare are indexed to inflation.”

are such details discussed by keynesian economists? in the same context as schiff or shiller… ie., 30 second blurbs on faux? or even articles in wsj?

garbage in, garbage out. if the cpi is flawed, and i think there is a very good case that it is, then everything else that based on the measurement of inflation is flawed. including your social security benefits that are “indexed” to “inflation”, gdp that is “adjusted” for inflation, inflationary comparisons themselves, ie., cost of oil in the 70’s vs today adjusted for “inflation”. how the hell can you have accurate analysis if the foundation, inflation, is “marked to fantasy”?

yeah, that’s right. i made a reference to cdo’s and the “mark to fantasy” standards there that makes evaluating bank assets impossible.

this also kinda smacks of global warming denial tactics; scientists are too stupid to add in calculations to account for the sun! likewise, mish is too stupid to recognize that the american consumer buys majority chinese goods!