That being said the depth and impact will be difficult to sort out. There’s a ton of crowing on here about “who could have guessed” and that’s very simple to do. The problem is that there is no other source of data. Period. That’s a potentially huge problem for the market.
Exactly. All we got there is that we can definitely say "ain't it awful". Again. We're still stuck with the fact that we've got to get beyond self pity and go back to earning a living, and that takes real dollars'n'cents numbers. The article's got none of that, all it's got is--
Just how large an effect this fraud was having on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — and consequently the cost of living adjustments for Social Security recipients and others — is not yet known.
The whole survey is very long, messy
It could have been because...
... it could also have been because...
There’s no way for me to determine how much
— it’s impossible for me to determine the magnitude of this
And I’m still looking into it.
Seriously? That's it? Don't get me wrong, this $hit's important and we need to keep an eye on things. Besides the fact that lot's of business transactions hinge in inflation measurements we need to remember that the gov't first got into the CPI biz for national defense.
So if all this is true then it won't be the first time defense issues were corrupted for politics.