tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2857291187245772710.post7563487690314970988..comments2015-10-04T09:09:27.052-05:00Comments on Quantitative Contemplations: CRB Core Inflation? Hardly.Joshua Ulrichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16641971932645230429noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2857291187245772710.post-22698177304829209422008-08-27T19:32:00.000-05:002008-08-27T19:32:00.000-05:00Hi Bill,For some reason, either a change in econom...Hi Bill,<BR/><BR/>For some reason, either a change in economagic.com or Rmetrics, the first 7 observations are missing.<BR/><BR/>I've updated the post with a (currently) working version of the guilty block of code.<BR/><BR/>Best,<BR/>JoshJoshua Ulrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16641971932645230429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2857291187245772710.post-70496206722020835372008-08-27T19:16:00.000-05:002008-08-27T19:16:00.000-05:00I realize this is on an older post but I can't get...I realize this is on an older post but I can't get the economagic command to work. I was having a problem and I ran across your example. When I run your code I have the same problem where there is an error downloading the data. Any ideas? Thanks. BillUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15482491081305577455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2857291187245772710.post-22390507176074039562007-11-06T09:33:00.000-06:002007-11-06T09:33:00.000-06:00I may have missed your main point due to the over-...I may have missed your main point due to the over-the-top nature of the post. ;-)<BR/><BR/>I agree that inflation ex-inflation is silly if you intend to represent actual price changes. However, median and trimmed-mean measures of price changes remove some volatility from the headline numbers (which helps gauge the trend in inflation) without excluding specific goods.<BR/><BR/>If you're looking for the trend - i.e. ignoring levels - in inflation, would you agree that median and trimmed-mean measures are useful in that regard?Joshua Ulrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16641971932645230429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2857291187245772710.post-28646551144965615142007-11-06T08:51:00.000-06:002007-11-06T08:51:00.000-06:00Josh,We are in total agreement -- but you may be o...Josh,<BR/><BR/>We are in total agreement -- but you may be overlooking my main point: Looking at the core (ex-food and energy) is a silly exercise. <BR/><BR/>It's what I call inflation ex-inflation -- the basket minus the stuff going up the most in price. <BR/><BR/>But since so many "Core-heads" keep on insisting on using it, I dug up that chart.<BR/><BR/>But I'm with you -- the way the core is used, it totally misrepresents inflation.Ritholtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08608448405502237269noreply@blogger.com