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Daniel Miessler c1d6b0b9f8 Add U.S. Inflation dataset with comprehensive CPI data (1947-2025)

Created new US-Inflation data directory with:
- 945 monthly CPI-U observations from FRED/BLS (Jan 1947 - Aug 2025)
- Comprehensive metadata documentation with methodology
- README with source research and justification
- UPDATES.md change log and update procedures
- RESOURCES.md with data sources and API access
- Structure mirrors existing COVID wastewater dataset

Data source: FRED Series CPIAUCSL (CPI for All Urban Consumers, Seasonally Adjusted)
Update frequency: Monthly (mid-month BLS releases)

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

2025-10-07 17:48:25 -07:00

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Dataset Update Log

This file tracks all updates to the U.S. Inflation (CPI) dataset.

Update Format

Each entry should include:

Date: When the update was made
Data Period: Which time period the new data covers
Source: URL or reference to the data source
Changes: What was added, modified, or corrected
Latest Value: Most recent data point added

2025-10-07 - Initial Dataset Creation

Data Period: 1947-01-01 to 2025-08-01 Source: FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) - BLS Series CPIAUCSL URL: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=CPIAUCSL&cosd=1947-01-01

Changes

Created initial dataset with 945 monthly data points
Downloaded FRED series CPIAUCSL (CPI for All Urban Consumers, Seasonally Adjusted)
Data includes:
- Observation dates in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD)
- CPI index values with 3 decimal place precision
- Coverage from January 1947 through August 2025

Latest Value

Month: August 2025
CPI Index: 323.364
Year-over-Year Change: ~2.5% (from August 2024)
Trend: Moderating inflation, stabilizing near Federal Reserve 2% target

Coverage

Start Date: 1947-01-01 (earliest available in FRED series)
End Date: 2025-08-01 (most recent data)
Total Records: 945 monthly measurements
Completeness: 100% (no gaps in monthly series)

Files Created

CPI-US-Monthly-1947-2025.csv (main dataset)
US-Inflation-CPI-1947-2025.md (metadata documentation)
README.md (dataset documentation)
RESOURCES.md (data sources)
UPDATES.md (this file)

Data Quality Notes

All 945 months have complete data
No missing values or gaps in time series
Seasonally adjusted values from BLS
Index baseline: 1982-1984 = 100
Historical low: 21.480 (January 1947)
Current value: 323.364 (August 2025)
Total increase: 1,404% over 78-year period

Notable Context

Dataset captures major inflation episodes:
- 1970s-1980s stagflation (peak ~14.8% annual)
- Great Moderation (1990s-2000s stable ~2-3%)
- Great Recession (2008-2009)
- COVID-19 inflation surge (2021-2023, peak 9.1%)
- Current normalization period (2024-2025)

Future Updates

New updates will be added above this line in reverse chronological order (newest first).

Update Schedule

Recommended Update Frequency: Monthly

When to Update:

BLS releases CPI data mid-month (typically 12th-15th)
FRED updates same day as BLS release
Check around the 15th of each month for new data

How to Update:

cd Data/US-Inflation
curl -s "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=CPIAUCSL&cosd=1947-01-01" -o CPI-US-Monthly-1947-2025.csv

Update Checklist:

Download fresh CSV from FRED
Verify row count increased by 1 (one new month)
Check latest value is reasonable (typically 0.1-0.5% monthly change)
Update this file with new entry
Update "Last Updated" date in README.md and metadata file

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