Tell these Americans that the economy is humming, that median wage growth has nudged ahead of the core inflation rate, and that everything’s grand, and you’re likely to see a roll of the eyes.
Maybe people realize that even if the economy is doing great they’re one medical emergency away from bankruptcy, and their kids will never afford college, and they get paid a lot less than the value they create for their employer while executives and hedge fund managers make out like bandits.
the core inflation rate… excludes food and energy costs—economic indicators that affect Americans’ daily lives.
This right tf HERE.
A box of graham crackers at my local grocery store is now $6.49
A true marker of the economy.
So dont buy them. Jesus you guys act so entitled to processed fucking foods it’s a joke
Graham crackers are cookies. Just make cookies instead.
How much would it cost to make cookies from scratch? List the ingredients and prices
The comment you are replying to was dickish, but this is a porous argument. In general the price of materials per cookie is going to be very low and an equivalent batch to what you would get in a box is still going to probably be around 15-20% of what you would pay at the store. Most cookie ingredients are shelf stable, most of them are very cheap, and you generally don’t need a lot of them with the vivid that you will already be ahead material wise for the next batch.
Can we stop with these inflation indexes. Most people shop at Walmart now, an index is no longer needed, just track Walmart prices.
Interest rates were raised to kick people in the teeth, the Federal reserve says that it needs to keep kicking people in the teeth for a few more months.
Economists are saying that people are not being kicked in the teeth.
Logicians everywhere are banging their heads on their desks, as people are both being kicked in the teeth, and not kicked in the teeth.
Interest rates were way too low for way too long which led to the situation we’re in now. While the Fed will probably lower rates this Summer they really shouldn’t because inflation hasn’t stabilized at all which was the entire point in the first place
China just dropped interest rates.
This world is not the world of 20 years ago.
Currant inflation is being caused because of high interest rates. Mortgages cost more, so landlords (40% of which are small mom and pop ordinary people renting a second home) increase the rents. It takes years for all the mortgages to flip over to the higher interest rates, so we’ve see this persistent and high inflation.
Current inflation is being caused because of high interest rates
Lowering and raising interest rates directly correlates with the increasing or reducing inflation.
When rates are high there is less money in the market because people by bonds because they guarantee a return of x%. This means there is less money in the market and the currency becomes stronger.
When rates are low money floods the market as people acquire assets, property etc The decreased price of loans like mortgages results in increased demand which results in more expensive houses.
If you have a lot of cash buying a house in a high interest market is actually the best case because houses have to be priced lower to compensate for the mortgage costs.
All that being said China lowering it’s interest rate will make loans cheaper but increase inflation. They have a weird real estate market though.
Lowering and raising interest rates directly correlates with the increasing or reducing inflation.
Meh. When you raise interest rates, companies raise prices, and go on borrowing. Raising rates doesn’t help fight inflation.
We are now seeing housing starts grinding to a halt, as average people stop buying homes do to high interest rates. These stories are starting to trickle into the press. Housing developers are calling high interest rates a disaster and economic killer. Politicians and banks listen to housing developers. The anger is building against bankers that believe simple stories such as ‘Lowering and raising interest rates directly correlates with the increasing or reducing inflation’, the real world is never that tidy.
Should have known it was Michael Powell from the headline. Guy is a hack republican shill that pretends to be centrist.
You obviously didn’t read the article. Read it, then tell us the part you agree with and which part you disagree with.
Other staples of life have also grown more expensive. Gas prices have gone up by about 50 percent in the past four years. Fuel-oil prices jumped by more than half from March 2020 to March 2024
Wow what totally innocuous and unbiased dates
It’s an article about Democratic analysts downplaying inflation during the Biden administration. What date range do you want him to use, the Gilded Age? Also:
The president is more clear-eyed than his cheerleaders. Several months ago, he largely stopped touting the joys of “Bidenomics” and talked instead about challenging the corporations that raised prices and padded profits. During the State of the Union, Biden pledged to take on corporations that quietly shrink their products and hike prices out of greed.
He’s not even criticizing Biden, he’s criticizing pundits for telling Americans that their economic experience is wrong, a strategy Biden himself has moved away from. Either you judged this article before you read it or you care very deeply about Democratic PR consultants.
Gas prices are down 30% since June 2022. Dead even since March 2014. Why did he pick March 2020? Because it was the absolute lowest prices of the entire decade due to a global pandemic. Every date he picks to compare is arbitrary. It’s not a comparison of “people felt good in 202X, and now they don’t feel good. Let’s compare the data.” It’s cherry picking.
It seems to me the most important element of this conversation is wage growth and unemployment versus inflation.
My understanding is those numbers being favorable are what make economists scratch their heads on why everyone feels so negatively and why the economists say the economy is doing great. The most convincing explanation I’ve seen that mirrors my own feelings is that wage growth feels like I’ve earned it through my own hard work but inflation feels like I’m being cheated, so even though overall people can buy more than before they don’t feel good about it.
This article doesn’t really address this big point at all.
who the heck can buy more than before. I make effectively half of what I did in 2020.
That’s unfortunate and hopefully you can get a raise or a better job but apparently unemployment is low overall and wage growth is outpacing inflation for most people.
Who can buy more than before? I can’t. Fuel, mortgage, insurance, food, alcohol, electricity, entertainment, services ect have all gone up way more than my wage has. Mortgage alone means i have less money each month than before interest rates and inflation went up.
It’s mostly because these numbers are averages and the majority of wage growth is seen by those switching jobs. We’re also talking about really small numbers here, wage growth isn’t beating inflation by much, it about a single point difference, that’s 10s of dollars per month difference. It also doesn’t account for the massive inflation in previous years, so even if you got a good raise this year it likely brought you to the same level as pre-2020.
If you haven’t changed jobs in over three years and have been getting sub 5% raises, you are well over 10% worse off than 3 years ago.
