The fact is that the dollar and inflation are well-understood phenomena. What is not so
well understood is that there are other factors over time that cannot be as easily tracked
as inflation.
As an example, suppose one were tracking the revenue of IBM over decades. The
revenue of IBM over decades is easy enough to find and track because of the fact that
IBM is a publicly traded company. But what is not so easy to track are all the acquisitions
of other companies that IBM has made over the years. Looking at IBM in 1960 and then
looking at IBM in 2000 are a little misleading because the company that IBM was in
1960 is a very different company than the company that IBM is in 2000.
There is constant change in the parameters of measurement of ANY variable over time.
The analyst of repetitive data does well to keep in mind that—given enough time—the
very patterns of measurement of data over time gradually change.
Chapter 9.1: Repetitive Analytics: Some Basics