No, the government isn't lying about inflation

Conspiracy theorists gonna conspiracy theorize

Yellen
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid))

A claim that you hear disturbingly often in the world of financial news is that inflation is higher than the official number produced by the government.

For many, it is an appealing argument. Inflation is calculated by looking at the changes in price of a representative range of goods. In the real world, price changes are different for everyone, because no two people buy the exact same things. That means some people are going to experience a higher level of inflation than the average.

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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.