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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) cancelled the October CPI report and delayed several other releases. Key series such as CPI, real earnings, state JOLTS, and county wage data now have gaps or shifted timelines.

Independent analysts note that missing a full month breaks continuity in the most widely used inflation signal in the United States. Forecasting models lose a key input. The Fed will make its December decision without two consecutive inflation prints.

My assumption is that we should not depend on a single centralized (potentially untrusted) source for something this important.

Private data sources already track groceries, rent, CPG pricing, energy, e-commerce, shipping, and wages in near real time.

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What would it take to build a community-driven, open CPI alternative that is transparent, reproducible, and tamper-resistant?

Some starting points:

  * Multiple contributors could publish item-level price feeds (groceries, rent, utilities, services).
  * Weighted baskets could be open and versioned.
  * Methods could be fixed, auditable, and stable over time.
  * Aggregation could be public code using public data where available.
  * Licensed private datasets could be added for specific categories.
  * Output could be monthly, weekly, or daily depending on the data.

I'm looking for practical approaches: data sources, weighting schemes, methods, and any existing open projects that are doing this today.