CPI States That Smartphone Prices Have Declined by 54% Since 2019
The BLS massively understates smartphone prices in its CPI calculation due to price hedonics. Look at the charts below. Is it your experience that smartphone prices have declined by 54% since 2019?
CPI is polluted by “quality adjustments” such as goods substitution and price hedonics. CPI is anything but an apples-to-apples price comparison of goods and services over time. CPI is designed to manipulate price increases downward.
See our Excel table (HERE) for a list of CPI items that are impacted by price hedonics, or, view the HTML table (HERE).
See the Excel data behind the below two charts HERE.
