Re: Jerry Hausman

[Michael Perelman <michael@ecst.csuchico.edu>]

  Michael R. Ward wrote:
  
  > At the cost of displaying my ignorance, I will ask "What is a flackmiester?"
  
  It is a superlative flack.
  > 
  > >                                                           The second
  > >time had him weighing in on the CPI debate -- on the wrong side.  The
  > >Economist also covered this last work.
  > 
  > Which is the wrong side and how do we know that?
  
  I think that the Boskin group has been shown to be wildly excessive.  If
  their estimates had been correct and you project back 50 years or so,
  then virtually everybody in the U.S. was in poverty.  This idea won
  enthusiasm as a way to cut back the government, not as a way to form
  more accurate statistics.  After all, data collection has been subject
  to severe cost reductions over the Regan-Bush-Clinton era.
  
  -- 
  Michael Perelman
  Economics Department
  California State University
  Chico, CA 95929
   
  Tel. 916-898-5321
  E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu