The inflation myth and the wonderful world of deflation

"This book is designed to ask questions regarding a subject that is important to everyone and of which there is a great deal of debate: Inflation. I want to lay out the following ideas: First, the concept of inflation is a myth, a legend, a fable and, yes, a falsehood for a number of reasons. Prices of goods and services in terms of the currency of the day rise from time to time but those prices manifest themselves in different places and at different times in a multitude of ways for different people. Second, the interest in inflation statistics is of immense interest to governments around the world because rising prices elicit a political response among their constituents. Governments often rise and fall on the perception people have about the prices of goods and services they consume. Therefore, governments try their best to measure inflation and in doing so simplify and generalize. Third, the measurement of inflation is severely flawed not because the diligent people who gather statistics regarding the prices of goods and services around the world are not being qualified or faithful to their effort, but because they are not only shooting at a moving target with prices changing up or down in a minute by minute basis but also the very nature of the products and services they are trying to measure are continuously changing."