The Consumer Price Index (CPI) can be thought of as a fixed market basket price index for the collection of all the goods and services that consumers buy. However, it is not a true fixed market basket price index because of adjustments for changing buying habits, new products, and improved quality. takes taxes into consideration as something we spend money on. can be used to change dollar amounts at one time into the amount at another time that has the same buying power. must be larger than 100. is determined from data from several large sample surveys