Bruce Littleboy raises a most pertinent question.  In 1983 the BLS removed
the price of housing from the CPI, substituting the rental equivalent - thus
blanking the boom of housing prices, 1983-90, out of the CPI. This
distortion continued in the greater boom of 2001-07. Michael Boskin and his
group never touched it, their premise was that the CPI OVERstates real
inflation. Their premise was also their conclusion, and they got that
embedded in most textbooks, whose authors acted like sheep in a herd.

Who WAS on top of this? Quite a few, but Chip Case and Bob Shiller of the
Case-Shiller index of real estate prices were and are notable. Their
measuring tool was the good old price/earnings ratio. When it gets above
about 20, there's a problem. And Oh boy, was there!

Mason Gaffney