Is the Shadowstat's CPI Correct? Here is a criticism of shadowstats CPI figues which also mentions the billion price project at MIT. http://azizonomics.com/2013/06/01/the-trouble-with-shadowstats/ Here is what Krugman had to say, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/another-alternative-inflation-measure/ And here is John Williams response to the criticism of the shadowstats CPI. http://www.shadowstats.com/article/special-comment Krugman's remarks can be skipped over without losing much if anything important, but if you are going to read the arizonomics post then you owe it to Williams to also read his response. I am pleased that Williams is, he says, arranging for an academic study to actually compute a CPI the way it used to be done . This will furnish a nice check on Williams far simpler adjustment method. We will learn just how accurate or inaccurate the Shadowstats figures are in tracking inflation the way it used to be computed. I wouldn't be surprised at the result regardless of whether it turns out that shadowstats over or underestimates inflation as it used to be computed. But what I would expect is that the simpler shadowstat adjustment does a pretty good job on average. We will have to await the results of the academic study to know for sure. And here is a very interesting article by Williams concerning the BLS method and the reasons for it. http://www.shadowstats.com/article/special-comment