With editing power comes responsibility

Long-time reader Chris P. sent me to this regrettable tweet by someone who works for the Department of Labor, which collects the nation's economic data. It features a list of items for which prices have declined year-over-year. The title is a true lie. Sure, the prices of the featured items decreased but the prices of many other items increased. This issue of cherry-picking is covered by economist Justin Wolfers (link), and I won't belabor it here.We now have two successive administrations that are fighting dramatic consumer price inflation by telling citizens their eyes are lying. When a matcha latte at a restaurant in a university town costs $13 (link), and when the Italian restaurant (no Michelin star) I'm going to tonight charges $38 for spaghetti alla chitarra, it's hard to not to notice! (For those who don't live in the U.S., those are list prices; add a minimum of 25% for taxes and tips.)Rapidly increasing prices is not a common thing in the U.S. It's only natural that…