Apples-to-apples, consumer price inflation nowadays is running close to the high inflation readings of the late 1970s. That should be a red flag for policymakers as monetary decisions are focused on actual outcomes, not forecasted. But reported inflation statistics do not show the 1970s inflation-style inflation because they no longer include actual house prices. The old consumer price index included house prices in measuring the owner’s housing cost, whereas the present-day price index base owners’ housing cost on an arbitrary, non-market rent measure. The only way to make a price series strictly comparable over time is to use the same...