Inflation Since 2020: What Your Money Buys Now

How it works — every step, readable

1. 01Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), monthly

   SELECT * FROM read_csv_auto('FRED_CPIAUCSL.csv', header=true)

2. 02Assumptions — edit these

   SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('Your salary in January 2020', 60000, 'USD')) AS t(assumption, value, unit)

3. 03Inflation, year over year

   computes running / windowed totals · sorts the output

   SELECT date, ROUND(100.0 * (cpiaucsl_idx / LAG(cpiaucsl_idx, 12) OVER (ORDER BY date) - 1), 2) AS inflation_yoy_pct
   FROM input_1 QUALIFY date >= DATE '2020-01-01' ORDER BY date

4. 04The punch lines

   buckets values by condition · computes running / windowed totals · appends result sets (e.g. a TOTAL row)

   WITH c AS (SELECT date, cpiaucsl_idx AS i, 100.0 * (cpiaucsl_idx / LAG(cpiaucsl_idx, 12) OVER (ORDER BY date) - 1) AS yoy FROM input_1),
   b AS (SELECT (SELECT i FROM c WHERE date = DATE '2020-01-01') AS i0, arg_max(i, date) AS i1, arg_max(date, date) AS d1, arg_max(yoy, date) AS yoy1,
     max(yoy) FILTER (WHERE date >= DATE '2020-01-01') AS peak, arg_max(date, yoy) FILTER (WHERE date >= DATE '2020-01-01') AS peak_d FROM c),
   a AS (SELECT MAX(CASE WHEN assumption = 'Your salary in January 2020' THEN CAST(value AS DOUBLE) END) AS sal FROM input_2)
   SELECT area, finding, next_step FROM (
     SELECT 1 AS o, 'VERDICT' AS area, 'PRICES ARE UP ' || printf('%.1f%%', 100 * (i1 / i0 - 1)) || ' SINCE JANUARY 2020 — $100 then buys ' || ('$' || format('{:,}', CAST(ROUND(100 * i0 / i1) AS BIGINT))) || ' of the same things today' AS finding, '' AS next_step FROM b
     UNION ALL SELECT 2, 'Inflation right now', printf('%.1f%%', yoy1) || ' a year', 'CPI for ' || strftime(d1, '%B %Y') FROM b
     UNION ALL SELECT 3, 'The peak', printf('%.1f%%', peak) || ' in ' || strftime(peak_d, '%B %Y'), 'The highest in four decades' FROM b
     UNION ALL SELECT 4, '$100 from January 2020', 'Now costs ' || ('$' || format('{:,}', CAST(ROUND(100 * i1 / i0) AS BIGINT))), 'Same basket of goods and services' FROM b
     UNION ALL SELECT 5, 'Your raise to keep up', ('$' || format('{:,}', CAST(ROUND(sal) AS BIGINT))) || ' → ' || ('$' || format('{:,}', CAST(ROUND(sal * i1 / i0) AS BIGINT))), 'Change your 2020 salary in the assumptions' FROM b, a
     UNION ALL SELECT 6, 'At today''s pace', 'Prices double in ' || CAST(ROUND(72.0 / NULLIF(yoy1, 0)) AS INTEGER) || ' years', 'Rule of 72' FROM b
   ) ORDER BY o