Inflation Calculation Changing Again

[Eric L.]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chained-cpi-inflation-measure-means-103000740.html

It looks like one of the changes to likely come out of the fiscal cliff deal is that we will be changing the way that inflation is calculated, again. We know that prices rose 8% last year, but the official government inflation number was less than 2%. Compounded over just a decade, 6% is a big difference and it looks like that difference is going to get larger.

While this is a good way for politicians to pay for Social Security without officially making cuts, the average worker still gets pinched.

In the 80's we dealt with inflation relatively well. Wages climbed with inflation and real estate followed. However, today wages don't go up as much as inflation. More companies have shipped jobs to countries where there is less regulation and taxes. American employees now compete with people working in countries without the inflation, so wages aren't pressured to rise with inflation.

That said, do you believe that rents and real estate values will follow inflation as they historically have or do you believe that they will stay stagnate with wages?