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Article: TALK BACK Statistical chicanery used by panel that studied CPI; Dear Mr. Hunkins: Your characterization of Boskin as a "political hack" is especially harsh, particularly if you consider that the commission was purposely bipartisan in order to remove any taint of politics. Said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y), the senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, upon receipt of the commission's report: "We're not trying to cut. We're not trying to raise. We're proposing an accurate count." With barely an economist to be found who doesn't believe the CPI has been overstating inflation and the fact that the commission is politically balanced, it would seem appropriate for critics of the report to provide detailed evidence that the commission is not an "independent reliable evaluator." ------------ On Sundays, the Journal Sentinelwill respond to selected letters.
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In your Dec. 10 editorial on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), you
took a rather naive view of Michael Boskin and the commission he
heads. You failed to mention that the members of Boskin's
commission, along with Boskin himself, have had a history of
believing that the CPI was overstated even before members of the
commission were appointed.
Furthermore, they often had some of the highest estimates of CPI
overstatement. You also neglected to report that the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, which calculates the CPI, shows no signs of
complying with Boskin's statistical chicanery. The bureau has many
hard-working economists who are experts at calculating price
indexes. They certainly do ...