🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <92363.190800RHG@psuvm.psu.edu> RHG@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>In a book I'm writing about World War II, I refer to a number of
>governmental purchases--but the dollar figures don't mean much
>unless they are converted to 1992 dollars.  (If an item cost $1,000
>in 1945, how much would it cost today?)  I'm sure there are charts
>that show that kind of thing, but I can't find any in the Penn State
>library.
>
>But all I need is a conversion formula.  Does anyone out there have
>one?

Unfortunately, there are too many. You have to pick and choose. If you
want a rough indicator, you can use the prices of different duration
government debt (i.e. treasury bills, short and long bonds) as an indication
of how people view the value of a dollar. However, you particularly mention
purchasing power, which is often measured by pricing a standard shopping
basket of basic goods. Energy costs are very important over the period
you are interested in, as are metal costs, and these do quite different
things (oil goes up and metals go down). If I were in your place, I'd
skip the formula and look for the economist down the hall. Don't worry
about a formula, you will probably find useful graphs in the literature.

Later,
Andrew Mullhaupt