The Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) for the Biden administration described its "new wage measure for core non-housing services" as a way to better describe wage growth and its relationship to inflation. However, the attempt seems to be part of a greater push to make inflation look lower and potentially influence the Federal Reserve into seeing more reason to end, and ultimately reduce, interest rate increases.

The problem is that eventually what is left for governments, businesses, non-profit institutions, and consumers is an ever more confusing mix of what is real or if a new measure is an attempt to paint a prettier, although more limited, picture.

The argument on the part of the administration is that there are already different measures of inflation, with core inflation looking at price growth without food or energy. That is so-called core inflation. Energy and food have historically been omitted because they historically have more volatility — more fluctuation — than other components, and so make understanding trends more difficult.