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Inflation is really 15%, highest since 1947; Why is government 'suppressing' data? John Williams
Inflation really should be much higher than what the government is reporting, said John Williams, founder of ShadowStats.
The latest headline consumer price index (CPI), as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 7%.
Williams calculates his own version of the CPI using the same way the government used to before 1980.
“After 1980, the biggest change was they looked at housing and where there had been a component in the housing cost, reflecting the cost of owning your own home, they changed that to the new concept of homeowners’ equivalent rent, where the government would estimate how much it would cost to own your own house,” he said.
Speaking to David Lin, anchor for Kitco News, Williams said that inflation should be in the double digits, and in fact, is actually at the highest level since 1947.
“If you looked at it the way it had been, you’d be looking at something closer to 15%, instead of 7%,” he said.
The government has a political incentive to under-report inflation, Williams said.
“The political incentive, very simply, was to reduce government outlays in terms of the cost of living adjustments significantly,” he said.
The inflation level is still set to continue rising, he noted.
For more information on inflation, and for Williams’ outlook on economic growth, watch the video above.
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