http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074428/html/

This book explains the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and describes it as one of the most widely used statistics in the United States; How it serves as a guide for the Federal Reserve Board's monetary policy and is an essential tool in calculating changes in the nation's output and living standards; and how it is used to determine annual cost-of-living allowances for social security retirees and other recipients of federal payments, to index the federal income tax system for inflation, and as the yardstick for U.S. Treasury inflation-indexed bonds.