The Billion Price Project @ MIT : A real-time CPI

Inflation, says Rocky, are rising prices for the things that you WANT to buy. Deflation, says Rocky, are declining prices for the things that you DON’T WANT to buy.

Although it uses a more analytically rigorous definition, there are many problems with the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). 

It’s exciting to announce that MIT has gone live with it’s “Billion Price Project” (BPP) — which monitors daily prices of 5 million items sold by 300 online retailers!

Here’s the link to the Billion Price Project: 
http://bpp.mit.edu/

[Disclosure: It costs the Labor Department $234 million each year to calculate the CPI, and it's only reported once each month.  For more details, see:
http://www.slate.com/id/2278623/
 ]