Jump to content

Price Statistics Review Committee (Stigler Commission): Difference between revisions

Price Statistics Review Committee (Stigler Commission) (edit)

Revision as of 01:43, 30 November 2025

3,679 bytes added ,  30 November 2025
ā†’ā€ŽOn X
(Created page with "The Stigler Commission, officially known as the Price Statistics Review Committee, was a pivotal body established in 1959 by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) at the request of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (predecessor to the Office of Management and Budget). It was chaired by economist George Stigler, who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1982 for his work on industrial organization and regulation. The committee's primary objective was to cond...")
Ā 
Ā 
(3 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
[[File:The Price Statistics of the Federal Government.png|thumb]]
The Stigler Commission, officially known as the Price Statistics Review Committee, was a pivotal body established in 1959 by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) at the request of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (predecessor to the Office of Management and Budget). It was chaired by economist [[George Stigler]], who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1982 for his work on industrial organization and regulation. The committee's primary objective was to conduct a comprehensive review of federal government price statistics, including the [[CPI|Consumer Price Index (CPI)]], Wholesale Price Index (WPI, now Producer Price Index), and other measures of inflation. This review was prompted by congressional hearings in the late 1950s, particularly those by the Joint Economic Committee, which highlighted concerns over the accuracy and conceptual foundations of these indices amid postwar economic changes, such as shifting consumer behaviors and quality improvements in goods.
The Stigler Commission, officially known as the Price Statistics Review Committee, was a pivotal body established in 1959 by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) at the request of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (predecessor to the Office of Management and Budget). It was chaired by economist [[George Stigler]], who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1982 for his work on industrial organization and regulation. The committee's primary objective was to conduct a comprehensive review of federal government price statistics, including the [[CPI|Consumer Price Index (CPI)]], Wholesale Price Index (WPI, now Producer Price Index), and other measures of inflation. This review was prompted by congressional hearings in the late 1950s, particularly those by the Joint Economic Committee, which highlighted concerns over the accuracy and conceptual foundations of these indices amid postwar economic changes, such as shifting consumer behaviors and quality improvements in goods.


Line 48: Line 50:


The commission's legacy extended beyond the U.S., influencing international price index standards, and it set a precedent for later reviews like the Boskin Commission (1996) and the National Research Council (2002), which built on its COLI advocacy while addressing remaining biases. Despite political sensitivitiesā€”e.g., labor unions' concerns over downward adjustmentsā€”the changes enhanced the CPI's economic rigor, though debates persist on whether it fully captures subgroup differences or modern issues like medical care costs.
The commission's legacy extended beyond the U.S., influencing international price index standards, and it set a precedent for later reviews like the Boskin Commission (1996) and the National Research Council (2002), which built on its COLI advocacy while addressing remaining biases. Despite political sensitivitiesā€”e.g., labor unions' concerns over downward adjustmentsā€”the changes enhanced the CPI's economic rigor, though debates persist on whether it fully captures subgroup differences or modern issues like medical care costs.
== On X ==
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1990534949397803328
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=So to sum it up: he is not wrong.
I think what I said to him is that after the 1950s, inflation became a modern tool/weapon rather than a measurement starting with the Stigler Commisson. I explained my view that the @BLS_gov is a quiet version of the @federalreserve. An insanely powerful ā€œStatisticsā€ organization where economists actually implement policy by simply chosing how to compute economic numbers.
Numbers that just so happen to automatically transfer trillions and touch every aspect of our lives.
He already knew a lot of the [[Boskin Commission|Boskin]]/GaugeTheory story from Harvard. Less about [[George Stigler|Stigler]] if I remember correctly.
Iā€™d love to ask Larry about all this now.
|thread=
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1990530011191992536
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=I believe [[Jeffrey Epstein|Epstein]] is referring implicitly to the ā€œStigler Commissionā€ of 1959-1961.
This comes from a phone conversation around 2004.
|quote=
{{Tweet
|image=nkulw-profile-gpcdbDoT.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/nkulw/status/1988837873513033941
|name=noah kulwin
|usernameurl=https://x.com/nkulw
|username=nkulw
|content=ā€œinflation is a concept from the 50sā€ what did he meanā€¦
|media1=nkulw-X-post-1988837873513033941-G5nFgW9XsAAL4lW.jpg
|timestamp=5:14 AM Ā· Nov 12, 2025
}}
|timestamp=9:18 PM Ā· Nov 17, 2025
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1990530014107107416
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=In a telephone conversation around 2004, he somehow was already well aware of the [[Boskin Commission|1996 Boskin Commission]] and Harvard Economics department burying our work on [[Gauge Theory]] in economics called ā€œ[[Geometric Marginalism]]ā€. That seemed pretty weird at the time.
With the benefit of hindsight and scrutiny, I now understand that he was connected to AT LEAST two of my colleagues from my time as an Economist in the @HarvardEcon department and @nber. To say nothing of the fact that he was connected to AT LEAST two more of colleagues from my time as an math graduate student in the @HarvardMath department. He was evidently in the background of *everywhere* I was over three and a half decades from 1985-2019. Itā€™s astounding.
I believe from memory what he means is the following:
In the 1950s inflation was not yet the tool of policy that it became after the [[Price Statistics Review Committee (Stigler Commission)|ā€œPrice Statistics Review Committeeā€]] around 1960, and the indexing of Social Security to [[CPI]] in the mid 1970s. It was a simple gauge.
After that time, it became a quiet tool. And a weapon. You could use it to transfer not billionsā€¦but trillions. Why? Because a GIANT amount of all U.S. Federal receipts are indexed.
He thought it was funny that we expected our work to be heard given that trillions were being stolen.
I hope that there is a transcript of this conversation as well as the gravity phone calls about [[Theory of Geometric Unity|GU]]. If so, it will likely point back to Litauer and Rosovsky, Jorgenson and Summers.
|timestamp=9:18 PM Ā· Nov 17, 2025
}}
|timestamp=9:38 PM Ā· Nov 17, 2025
}}


== Related Pages ==
== Related Pages ==


* [[Boskin Commission]]
* [[CPI]]
* [[George Stigler|Ericā€™s Most Important Set of Books]]
* [[George Stigler|Ericā€™s Most Important Set of Books]]
* [[Gauge Theory of Economics]]
* [[Gauge Theory of Economics]]
* [[George Stigler]]
* [[George Stigler]]
* [[Jeffrey Epstein]]


[[Category:People]]
[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Economics]]
[[Category:Economics]]
Retrieved from "https://theportal.wiki/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/23866...24371"