Whaddya wanna know about key inflation measures?

Make Me Smart

Inflation isn’t going anywhere, and listeners wanna know what’s up with two of the government’s inflation measures. Today, we’re answering some nerdy econ questions about the consumer price index and personal consumption expenditures price index. We’ll also answer questions about how the Supreme Court gets funded and the ins and outs of joint fundraising committees.

Got a question you’d like us to answer? Email [e-mail] or leave us a voice mail at 508-U-B-SMART!

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “How does the government measure inflation?” from Brookings

• • “Why the PCE is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation” from Marketplace

• • “What is the Core PCE price index?” from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

• • “Courts, Programs, and Other Items Funded by Congressional Appropriations for the Federal Judiciary” from the Congressional Research Service

• • “US judiciary set to receive modest spending boost from Congress” from Reuters

• • “Judicial Compensation” from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts

• • “Inside the Rent Inflation Measure That Economics Nerds Love to Hate” from The New York Times

• • “A guide to political money: campaigns, PACs, super PACs” from Associated Press

• • “Joint fundraising: A campaign strategy to increase contributions” from Marketplace

• • “Fundraising for Super PACs by federal candidates” from the Federal Election Commission

Join us tomorrow for Economics on Tap! The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern. We’ll have news, drinks and play a round of Half Full/Half Empty.