From The Daily Mail:
The consumer price index rose 5.4 percent in September from a year ago, up slightly from August’s gain of 5.3 percent and matching the levels seen in June and July.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose 0.2 percent in September and 4 percent compared with a year ago. The core inflation number hit a three-decade high of 4.5 percent in June.
The big take away of this article is this infographic:
By midterms next year, going to a chain restaurant for a burger will be $20 and a steak is going to be a luxury $40 item.
Applebee’s is gonna be like Ruth’s Chris.
We’re going to go back to home tailoring clothes and turning every last bit of leftovers into a casserole like our depression era grandparents.
It’s going to suck something fierce.
Don’t worry, according to Bloomberg, that’s good.
America Needs Higher, Longer-Lasting Inflation
The benefits of moderately rising prices and wages outweigh the costs.
All of this has economists and central bankers dutifully poring over data for signs of when or whether inflation, currently just under 4%, will drift back toward the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. Instead, they should be considering a more fundamental question: whether the Fed should strive to make 4% inflation permanent.
Inflation — particularly when caused by sharp increases in a few products — is politically unpopular. A modest sustained increase in prices and wages, however, would create a more stable U.S. economy by improving debt dynamics and giving the Fed more flexibility. In an uncertain world, those two advantages make higher inflation more than worth it.
Sure, you lost the ability to grill burgers or have a BLT at home whenever you want as a middle-class American. You’re rationing out food, reusing your coffee grounds, and have given up on a road trip to grandma’s this year because you can’t afford the gas, but that’s a good thing because the Fed or something, something, you don’t understand because you don’t have a degree in monetary theory.
Welcome to the Great Deprestagflation, and your suffering is good for the nation. You don’t understand why but it is because some Wall Street shit-weasel said so.
The overall number and especially the so-called “core” number don’t seem to jibe with the graphic.
On the 2% target, I maintain that there is no justification for that number other than “it’s the highest inflation we can inflict on the peasantry before they will revolt”. If you study real economics, as practiced by the likes of Ludwig von Mises, and real money, you’ll see that the natural behavior of a growing economy is a gradual decrease in prices (as productivity increases more than the money supply). There is a branch of voodoo economics that holds this “deflation” is somehow evil, but that’s bunk. What is true is that sudden shock deflation caused by bad government policies is bad, no surprise, but the natural drop in prices is just fine. And in fact those of us in high tech have experienced this our entire lives; deflation is and always has been a fact of life in our world.
On the bright side you have the opportunity to rediscover the cuisine of the shtetl. Start raising chickens and use that degree to commercialize that schmaltz production.
“would create a more stable U.S. economy by improving debt dynamics and giving the Fed more flexibility.”
That’s Bloomberg speak for “we’re gonna f*** you over to make it easier for the Feds to pay on their debts. We intend to pay interest on the Federal debt in funny money – and if you get shafted, well, that’s just the price you pay. Peasant. Now shut up and go to work for us.”
Screw Bloomberg.
We now know at least one of the DNC talking points to try and spin their way out of being justly blamed for the present and future economic pain. The gaslight is still on.
Will enough people recognize it for what it is? I doubt it, but have been surprised before.
They don’t mention the impact on people who no longer have “wages” and are living on their retirement savings, which becomes worth less and less each year.
I’ve been aggressively putting money in retirement accounts for decades in anticipation of one day being able to enjoy the fruits of that labor.
And the government is stealing the value of my effort because it’s convenient for them to do so.
Yes precisely. That’s the purpose of government-mandated inflation — to take away your savings without authority.
Once in a while some communist congresscritter proposes a “wealth tax”, which makes some noise and then disappears. So you might think there isn’t a wealth tax. Wrong — there is, and it has been decreed by the unconstitutional bureaucrats running the Federal Reserve.
I’ve been thinking it would be great to have a standard question for any Senate confirmation hearing: “Please state, in detail, the Constitutional authority for your proposed office to exist, and its limitations.” As one of many examples, a Fed nominee would have to answer, if honest “there isn’t one”.
Back in the 70’s there was a consumer price index that was tied to a “family weekly grocery budget”. I.e. it was what a normal family would pay per week to feed their family. The normalized shopping cart included floor, eggs, milk, sugar, butter, bread, hamburger, steak, veggies both canned, fresh and frozen, fruit canned, fresh, and frozen, cereal.
In short the sort of things that a normal family would eat during a normal week.
Over time the number of dollars required to pay for this was going up. Not much, but a little, the cost was going down relative to the earnings of the average family.
Then we had one of those democratically imposed periods of “bad luck” where the prices of everything started soaring. But this amazing thing happened, the basket of food suddenly cost less.
It took fewer dollars to bring home the food for that average family.
And then you looked at what really happened. The government decided that steak and fresh veggies and fresh fruit and such were to expensive so the “normal” family wouldn’t be buying them any more and would instead be buying cheaper alternatives. So they changed out the steak for more chicken and hamburger and such, the fresh veggies and fruits became canned or frozen.
For a way of looking at inflation that is an interesting slice of economic theory, take a look at “The Big Mac Index”. This index tracks the price of a Big Mac in different locations over time. Since the materials and labor that go into making a Big Mac are very stable we can use the cost of a Big Mac to get a feeling for currency values and inflation values.
Thus, if you can buy a big mac for X dollars in Nashville and it costs Y Euro’s in Paris, then the exchange rate should be X:Y. If it is not then one currency is under valued. You can also compare to the CPI and see how prices of Big Macs match the CPI (hint, they don’t. CPI says there should be about a 200% increase of Big Macs since their introduction. Reality says it is closer to a 400%-500% increase)
In 1969 a Big Mac cost 49 cents.
the numbers are such bu**shI**. We had to requote some computer systems in late August that I’d quoted in July. Our cost now, was out selling price then.
The next time someone tells me how much better off we are under Sleepy Joe than Orange Man Bad, I think I might just knock their teeth out.
Jesus Christ. I presume everyone realizes that the gasoline increase has a knock-on effect on just about EVERYTHING ELSE on that list, right?
(Yes, I know the rest of you realize that. But I’m still horrified.)
Those that lean left are always surprised when cost increases are passed on to them. My daughter is woke and proud about it. She is of the firm belief that every cost increase to her employer should just come out of “profits”.
She has no idea that those profits actually go to people that invested in her employer’s company. She just thinks that “they” should eat those costs.
My much less woke and thinking daughter is very aware of the costs of things at her work place. She works at a local restaurant and the cost of everything is going up and their ability to get what they actually want is going down.
In the sprint they were getting 24 cases of soda a week. This last week only 7 cases where delivered. They ordered 24, but 7 were all that were actually delivered and they were second tier sodas. The price of everything has gone up and her employers are trying hard to keep the prices stable but they are being forced to raise prices just to stay in business.
Spoke with my brother the other day. He is enduring a few more years on Long Island, in what used to be a pretty strong Republican suburb. But, they went almost 100% Biden in 2020 because of the Trump tax reforms which capped real estate deductions at $10K. Most homes in his town carry a $16-18K tax bill.
in the eyes of these math/tax geniuses, Trump cost them $8K a year, and needed to go.
As much as I hate the idea of paying huge prices for food, I get a bit of a smile knowing that every idiot that voted for Biden is going to suffer right along side me. In fact, they are likely to suffer more because I am a stingy bastard and stretch almost every dollar to the limit.
But, at least there are no more mean tweets.
A modest sustained increase in prices and wages
Wages won’t increase, prices will, and the retired will take it in the shorts.