Online Inflation Calculator

The following is an extremely valuable tool. It is a web site that acts as an inflation calculator. It was posted on Walter Williams' web site last week. (Walter Williams is a nationally syndicated columnist and an economics professor at George Mason University.) This inflation calculator allows one to be able to see clearly the difference in prices/costs in relation to the inflationary effect over specified periods of time.

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

It is also a handy tool for battling against media reports (frequent reports, unfortunately) which hype the current costs of things like a barrel of oil, a gallon of gasoline, or a loaf of bread and constantly use the adjective "record" to describe such prices, e.g. “… a barrel of oil set another record price today..." etc.

As we learn from Mr. Williams' web site (as well as Newsweek and many others), the supposedly record prices for a barrel of oil during the past month (August 2005) were actually not the most expensive barrels of oil in the history of the US when we bring in the factor of inflation-adjusted dollars. The most expensive barrels of oil were actually produced from 1980 through 1981. By today's standards, a gallon of gasoline would cost $3.16 when it was brought to market during this time. We may be quickly approaching that price here in September, but in August the price of a gallon of gasoline was definitely not a record as is often reported within the major media news outlets.