An introduction to the significance of the debate surrounding the accuracy of the Consumer Price Index. The work presents the full text of the Boskin Commission report (stating that the CPI overstates inflation by 1.1per cent) and discusses the Commission's research methodology and its conclusions.

Hubsch's argument that the technical progress and changed living habits of the nineteenth century rendered neoclassical principles antiquated is presented here along with responses to his essay by architects, historians, and critics over two decades.