CRER director and chief economist Howard Wall provided comments about a report outlining ways in which Tennessee’s economic success might not be felt by everyone.
Howard Wall, an economist based at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said looking at only some costs, rather than at the inflation rate across all goods, can provide a skewed picture.
“The cherry-picking made it sound like people were worse off, when actually they’re really quite better off on average,” Wall said.
Wall said when prices go up, people tend to make different choices about how to spend their money.
“What you should do is say, ‘OK, well, if steak becomes more expensive, you buy more chicken,'” Wall said.