[jjoonathan]

I'll grant you that it's entirely possible for this sequence of events to have happened spontaneously, without any malice, on the basis of misunderstandings. It could also have happened through the selective promotion of convenient metrics (which I'd argue does constitute rigging, just by a different party), or indeed through actual malice, though I tend to share your doubts on that front.

My invocation of the term "rigged" was not charitable but that's pretty far from saying it was actually incorrect. If I had to bet, I would bet on the middle possibility: metrics are built honestly but selectively promoted in accordance with political agendas in a manner that I would be comfortable to characterize as "rigged."

In any case, assigning blame is one thing and designing portfolios robust to this kind of mishap is another. Fortunately, the difficult parts of assigning blame are completely irrelevant to portfolio design. No matter who was responsible, the correct response is to avoid metrics that are easy to misunderstand (or rig!). Which brings us right back to favoring "assets hedge inflation" over "TIPS hedge inflation."