When one compares the present cost of goods and services that have remained essentially unchanged in form or functionality since the 1950's (example: postage stamp, ice cream cone, haircut, gallon of gas, gallon of milk), one can easily see that the government is massaging the numbers. From BLS unemployment statistics to hedonic adjustments to monetary and credit expansion, the US has an entire Ministry of Propaganda hard at work on misleading and misdirecting anyone interested in the economics of the matter.
Welcome to the Ministry of Propaganda. Of course you won't find any sign proclaiming a building in Washington D.C. the Ministry of Propaganda, but the ministry exists in a decentralized fashion, reaching into every fiber of the government and the private sector.
Like the Devil, the MOP's most successful propaganda campaign is the one denying its own existence.
The US has become a giant Enron, nothing but lies, lies, and lies.
1) Bogus inflation numbers.
2) The unemployment rate is also manipulated down.
3) GDP is back-adjusted lower every quarter.
4) Balance sheets of corporations, pension funds and government agencies massively understate liabilities and overstate assets/future earnings.
5) Visibly laughable lies are mouthed by top officials with a straight face.

The Propaganda Ministry has waged a successful campaign. It has convinced people that apathy is concern, liabilities are assets, inflation doesn’t exist, debt is money and growth, peace is war, terror will be ended by war, and any news is good for stocks. The Prop Min has gotten people to accept that the only way to support soldiers is to keep them in harms way and to suggest otherwise is unpatriotic.

Apparently people also believe that recessions are evil, destruction of purchasing power creates a strong currency, discouraged workers are not unemployed, and that people in this country illegally are entitled to the rights and privileges of legal citizens. All but a few believe the Fed is both omnipotent and omniscient, and craven morons have Ph.D’s or Nobel Prizes so they must be smart and capable of governing effectively.

Now the Prop Min is working on getting us to accept that worthless assets are worth what ever mythical value assumed so long as the assets are never subjected to price discovery in an open market.
How do fundamentals have meaning in an environment where reality and truth have little or no value? How does one prosper and protect that prosperity?
Welcome to the world of the market technician.

The best single source for information on the "real" rate of inflation (roughly 6-7%, not the phony 2% cited by our government agencies and the Fed) is John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting.
http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs?