Private economic consulting firms and think tanks in Argentina have received an ultimatum from the office of Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno to explain their methodologies for estimating inflation, risking a fine if they don’t comply, according to Roubini Global Economics.
Pretty banana republic behavior, wouldn't you say?
I ask, is this much different from a House subcommittee asking Meredith Whitney to testify before the subcommittee and for her to bring along her work product?
I suspect the answer will be "we take a set basket of products, and follow their price development, without re-weighting, hedonics or substitution".
ReplyDeleteI suspect the Commerce Secretary will there-after issue a statement saying that such simplistic models do not track cost-of-living, and this proves that the government numbers are right.
The good thing is, I suspect they will have a hard time shutting down the Billion Prices Project @ MIT, without shutting off the internet completely in Argentina. Of course, that's just fashionable these days.