Inflation is a highly politicized topic. The means of calculating it is frequently under revision.
The US federal government is massively in debt in $USD terms, so inflation is good for them. On the flip side, they need to convince the world that inflation is under control or they may lose the status of being the world's reserve currency issuer. How can you accomplish both goals? Continue to debase the currency while you fudge the numbers.
> The means of calculating it is frequently under revision.
BLS frequently makes changes to how it calculates inflation. However, none of these changes make that big of a difference. I have never seen an economist arguing that inflation is actually 10+ percentage points higher than BLS is reporting.
If anything, many economists think BLS overestimates inflation because they do not account for substitution (e.g. people buying fewer eggs when the price goes up).
The US federal government is massively in debt in $USD terms, so inflation is good for them. On the flip side, they need to convince the world that inflation is under control or they may lose the status of being the world's reserve currency issuer. How can you accomplish both goals? Continue to debase the currency while you fudge the numbers.