The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Cost-of-Living Index

The federal government’s first comprehensive cost-of-living index came out, hobbled with limitations, in late 1920. Its narrow demographic scope and choice of prices to be averaged were constrained by considerations of cost, practicality, racial and class bias, and limited institutional capacity. The result emerged just before the urgency conferred by rising prices began to fade—and with it, government funding and public interest.