Prediction of Consumer Price Index

On Wednesday 12 May, the U.S.'s Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Consumer Price Index. We ran a Twitter Poll over on the Zeitgeist Twitter account, and the second most predicted outcome was that the U.S.'s CPI would increase by more than 0.5%, which indeed it did: Rising a total of 0.8%.

This 0.8% increase from the previous month is the fastest growth since, you guessed it, September 2008.

Now, the CPI measures a basket of goods including housing & energy prices in order to provide a gauge of inflation for consumers.

The index is published monthly, & measures prices both from last month as well as a year ago.

Here are the key culprits from this time last year:

⚡️ Energy prices +25% 🚙 Used cars & trucks +21% 🏠 Shelter +2.1% 🔌 Copper +36% 🍔 Food +4.2% 🚕 Transport +5.6%

Now, you may be wondering: "Why would a blockchain company be polling and then tweeting about the Consumer Price Index?"

Well, we're glad you asked! 😉 Because Zeitgeist is building a blockchain specifically FOR Prediction Markets: Markets which, by their structure, provide key data about the possible outcomes of future events.

The Consumer Price Index is a great indicator for a myriad of markets, and polling and then analyzing its data is a fun way to remind ourselves that we can gain comprehensive insight from specialized Prediction Markets.

We'll host a bunch of other Twitter polls that will provide fun insights, and eventually we're aiming for our protocol itself to be a host for numerous such Prediction Markets. So as always... watch this space. ☺️