Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Inflation Index Fix Could Cut Federal Deficit | Synopsis

Inflation Index Fix Could Cut Federal Deficit

Euro Crisis Infographic: Greek GDP as a Percentage of GDP vs Greek Unemployment
Euro Crisis Infographic: Greek GDP as a Percentage of GDP vs Greek Unemployment by EuroCrisisExplained.co.uk
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Excerpt:

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET. The Labor Department on Friday issues its report on inflation for the month of November. Consumer prices have been growing slowly, at an annual rate of about 2 percent. The Consumer Price Index is one of the most familiar measures in economics and politics. But some in Washington want to change the way the index is calculated to better reflect people's shopping habits. While the proposed change is described as a technical fix, it could also cut the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. Even though it's a small number, the inflation measure can make big waves. It's used to adjust Social Security and other retirement benefits. And like any government statistic with the potential to move markets, it's a closely guarded secret until the official announcement.

People:

Marc Goldwein

Overall Sentiment: -0.0972312

Relevance: 0.890202

SentimentQuote
0"It's not as if people are always going from steak down to chicken. Sometimes people are going from chicken to steak," he says. ...
0.0346526"Given that the economy is still weak, we don't want massive amounts of deficit reduction right now," Goldwein says. ...
-0.0260754"Given that the economy is still weak, we don't want massive amounts of deficit reduction right now," Goldwein says. "That's the whole reason we're avoiding the "fiscal cliff."
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 3
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0.0085772
  • Mean: 0.0028590666666667
  • Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

Firvita

Overall Sentiment: -0.117504

Relevance: 0.395626

SentimentQuote
0.0583863"Obviously, more of their money goes to health care. Health care grows faster than inflation. And if folks want to have a conversation about accuracy, we would welcome adoption of a more accurate market basket. And one that really reflects the spending patters of the retired and the disabled," Firvita says. ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 1
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0.0583863
  • Mean: 0.0583863
  • Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

John Greenlees

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.32288

SentimentQuote
0"The areas where the people that produce the CPI work are certainly sealed off from everyone else during this period," says John Greenlees, ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 1
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0
  • Mean: 0
  • Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

President Obama

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.311121

Key:

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  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

FieldTerminology: Consumer Price Index

Overall Sentiment: 0.110313

Relevance: 0.767555

Organization: federal government

Overall Sentiment: -0.140539

Relevance: 0.685817

Organization: Labor Department

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.339805

Organization: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Overall Sentiment: 0.15096

Relevance: 0.334246

Company: Twitter

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.339263

Disambiguation: Website | VentureFundedCompanyReferences:

City: Washington

Overall Sentiment: 0.161414

Relevance: 0.36872

Disambiguation: AdministrativeDivision | GovernmentalJurisdiction | MilitaryPost | PlaceWithNeighborhoods | USCountyReferences:
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