We are already seeing price inflation in real estate prices as a result of low interest rates (fed policy).
It doesn't look like that's been the case over the past three years. Though what's missing from the graph below is median square footage. The multi-decade trend has been toward larger houses, but I believe the trend over the past few years has been slightly downward. Factor that in and you might see a bit of inflation per square foot.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=ubtE
Obviously housing trends vary widely from region to region, so YMMV.
Also, "The CPI also does not include investment items, such as stocks, bonds, real estate ..."
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_10
Real estate prices are incorporated into the CPI only indirectly, to the extent that they affect the cost of shelter:

Housing units are not in the CPI market basket. Like most other economic series, the CPI views housing units as capital (or investment) goods and not as consumption items. Spending to purchase and improve houses and other housing units is investment and not consumption. Shelter, the service the housing units provide, is the relevant consumption item for the CPI. The cost of shelter for renter-occupied housing is rent. For an owner-occupied unit, the cost of shelter is the implicit rent that owner occupants would have to pay if they were renting their homes.

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/owners-equivalent-rent-and-rent.pdf

VWUSX currently has 251 holdings, the top 10 representing 40% of the portfolio.
MFOP shows that in its 60+ year life, the fund has returned -0.1% APR vs. the S&P 500 and its MFO Risk and MFO Rating both as 1 (Worst).
OTOH its more recent performance shows that its 10, 5, 3, 1, and YTD TR has outperformed the Index by 4.2, 6, 12.1, 27.4, and YTD 11.3% as a "diversified" portfolio but one "less differentiated from its benchmark (the Russell 1000 Growth Index) and becoming more like the Index, according to M*. Its active share percentage has dropped.
So that may be one reason why Vanguard is proposing the change IDK.
Also note that the fund has five portfolio advisers, not a single PM.
It will be interesting to see how it performs as a non-diversified product if the shareholders approve it. I don't own the fund.

Hi Sir @_Catch22 -
just what the 'Doctor' ordered
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/14/retail-sales-july-2020.html
stay safe

Due to elevated asset valuations (stocks & bonds) I'm now back to a cash build mode while I await the next stock market pullback (5% to 10% range, or better, from 52 week high). In addition, I'd like to see a dividend yield for the S&P 500 Index in the 2.0+% range. Although growth has been where the momentum has been of late I'm thinking better value can presently be had in value stocks over their growth cousins.
For the past month a good number of my value type funds have been the better performers within my portfolio with some having dividend yields in the three to four percent range. Now being retired and an income focused investor two domestic value type funds that I own which are good dividend payers are SVAAX and IDIVX with yields of 4.2% and 3.7% respectively. In addition, they have returned better than ten percent over the past 90 days and are now starting to find some traction with returns in the five to six percent range over the past thiry days.
Another good dividend paying global fund that I favor, with a dividend yield of about 3.3%, which has had a three month return of better than twenty percent and a little better than six percent return over the past 30 days is EADIX. This fund is listed by M* as LCB but has a good number of growth stocks in it.

Just noticed the link to the original article was not included.....
https://apnews.com/89992979ca3c3ba72eb2cd31a9ca0e5d

Order placed to close out my VDIGX position as part of portfolio simplification. 14% gain since Feb.
Going into the rest of the year I expect to re-open and significantly fund a PRBLX holding as a core position in the OEF part of my portfolio.

25% of stores nearby outlet mall closed or facing bankruptcy including wifey favorite Nordstrom rack. So much sales now/get everything cheap. I am pleasantly surprised you still can get much for your dollar. Good news see many folks shopping and traffic steady.
The Waterpark closeby have at least +300 teenagers/kiddos teenagers no masks/ As Mr Rono stated > 90s% wear masks (even though mandatory or fine few hundreds)
10% need new tenants though at mall.

Once the economy picks back up inflation may as well. We are already seeing price inflation in real estate prices as a result of low interest rates (fed policy). Short duration TIPS seems like a way to hedge Inflation for the cash-like part of one's portfolio. Short Term TIPS have performed very well this year. VTIPX is up 7.45% YTD. VTIPX had a Max DD of about 1.57% that began in March and ended in May. In it's short history, Nov 2012, most of its gains have occurred in 2020.

This article discusses some of what needs our attention during the transformation in the economy now underway.

Jobs are fully back for the highest wage earners, but fewer than half the jobs lost this spring have returned for those making less than $20 an hour, according to a new labor data analysis by John Friedman, an economics professor at Brown University and co-director of Opportunity Insights. Though recessions almost always hit lower-wage workers the hardest, the pandemic is causing especially large gaps between rich and poor, and between White and minority households. It is also widening the gap between big and small businesses.
Some economists have started to call this a “K-shaped” recovery because of the diverging prospects for the rich and poor, and they say policy failures in Washington are exacerbating the problems.
“The stock market continues to reflect big businesses increasing their market share during #COVID19. If a small business closes, a larger business fills the void. We need to contemplate what this means for Main Street USA going forward. Is this really the future we want?” Cohn tweeted.

https://washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/13/recession-is-over-rich-working-class-is-far-recovered/

Here is the link to the above story:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-small-subset-of-vanguard-investors-moved-entirely-into-cash-when-the-market-tumbled-heres-how-they-did-2020-08-13

Yeah his stuff was interesting --- but I hated how you had to log in to pull down the weekly report ... in 2016 (or 18, whenever it was) he should have been able to send it to subscribers via email. Forcing readers to login was inconvenient and I let the subscription lapse.

More Facebook! More Amazon! More Apple!
Just buy the NASDAQ 100.

Rebalanced my 401(k) yesterday. Sold some VG 500 Index CIT shares and added to existing Dodge & Cox Income (DODIX) shares. Increased DODIX allocation 4.3% within 401(k).

I just got a letter from Vanguard indicating they'll be asking shareholders to vote to change several funds to "non-diversified". One of the funds is US Growth. I don't own it, but it strikes me as not a good idea. I'd like to know what you think about it.
The "diversified" restriction is to have less than 25% of fund assets invested in securities that account for more than 5% of total fund assets or to own more than 10% of a single issuer's outstanding voting securities. Those don't strike me as particularly restrictive. If I owned this fund, one of my goals would be diversification. Vanguard claims going to "non-diversified" "can lead to potentially better performance outcome for investors." But it sounds more like allowing the portfolio manager to turn it into a "focus" fund.

+1

actually this is giving me confidence in the fund. It's got more than half in cash, a heckuva bond mgr, and it's giving you 4.4%. This might be the "new" RPHYX

2 completely different funds.
RPHYX made 2.1% average annually in the last 3 years. Why would I want to own this fund? The only reason maybe cash "sub" since many bond funds I own made a lot more. RPHYX is mostly short term duration HY bonds + cash & Equivalents.
MWFSX is a Multi sector fund. Please find me more bond funds with over 50% in cash. It made only 0.42% in the last month. That is at the bottom 2% in its category. For 3 months it is at the bottom 12%.
The only confidence I have is when I see performance but maybe they are right and why rates started to go up in the last several days :-)

Here is the problem with the GMO team. They are wrong for years. The SP500 made over 10% more than what they predicted at the end of 2010 for the next 7 years. It is not that clear but the first green bar says that US large cap will do 0.4% + 2.5% inflation = 2.9% average annually in the next 7 years...or...EM will do 4.1+2.5=6.6 but they lagged US LC. GMO have been saying that EM will be better than US for 10 years already.
You can see in this (link) what SPY did vs EEM from 12-31-2010 in the next 7 years.
(image)
But they are not alone. Arnott models didn't work either and why PAUIX made under 2% annually for 10 years.
Gundlach, the bond king, predicted in 2018 that the 10 year Treasury will be at 6% in 2021.
And it's not the only thing: over the last 10 years we heard that
inflation must be high.
Valuations are ridiculous.
Inverted yield means recession.
So, what is the reason why markets are up and the prediction are off? When the Fed interfere models, history and prediction can be off by years?
Sure, one day some predictions will true, after all, if you predict things for years, eventually you will be right.

I agree, Bobby. Half in cash ready to deploy on opportunity with a current 4.4% yield AND low volatility, that’s appealing to me. Not for a huge section of my portfolio, but 5 to 10% for sure.

It's not about jobs coming back but leaving permanently as we speak. Companies like Vanguard & TVA (high profile) are moving the IT jobs to India. It's not that they can't afford IT jobs done by American workers but greed supreme.Those jobs are NEVER-NEVER-NEVER going to come back. A slap to America, they will bring cheap India H1 'professionals' to guard the hen house.