Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes • Hacker News Board

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#211

Post by gher-shyu3i » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:57 PM UTC

pram wrote: post #179

gher-shyu3i wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fiat money is the outcome of unfettered capitalism. The government needs money to pay its loans that it took with interest, so what does it do? Detach the currency from anything tangible like gold or other precious metals, then print more money as it desires, devaluing the hard work of people who are trying to save money. There's a reason that interest and usury are prohibited in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Mar…

Currency debasement is a pretty ancient phenomenon. It’s also not usury.

The usury comes from the government taking loans with interest, so it is forced to print more money to cover its deficits which keep growing due to interest.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#212

Post by PragmaticPulp » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:57 PM UTC

adflux wrote: post #17

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #2

"thanks to a combination of poor weather, increased demand and virus-mangled global supply chains." Seems like a lost opportunity to create so much anxiety with a long piece like this, to then only have this single line to hint at a reason for the rise. Can anybody more economically minded clarify if this is just post-covid rebound supply chain prices or is this food prices adjusting closer to their 'real' cost? Also…

Sure, almost all central banks over the world have printed an astronomical amount of money. Even though they may state there is no significant inflation, I dont buy it and neither do many other economists. Stock prices, house prices and now, at last, commodity prices have gone through the roof... But you're probably earning about as much as you were a year ago, or less, if your industry was affected... It's not just…

Inflation due to monetary policy is a hot topic right now, but it’s getting too much blame for current events.

Prices are up for multiple reasons, including more pressure on shipping channels due to increased demand for goods across the board.

Also, this article is largely about inflation in developing nations like Indonesia. The inflation noted in countries like the United States is more pedestrian:

> In the U.S., prices rose close to 3% in the year ending Jan. 2, according to NielsenIQ, roughly double the overall rate of inflation.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#213

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

Wolfenstein98k wrote: post #178

" Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes " ...Food price rises ARE inflation!

[deleted]

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#214

Post by dominotw » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

randerson wrote: post #128

xyst wrote: post #118

Rising food costs. Rising housing costs. Rising unemployment and stagnating wages. Another crash coming in the next couple of years?

Don't forget soaring stock prices too. Sure all feels like inflation to me.

Talking about inflation seems to have turned into some sort of political issue. I know I can feel the prices rising everywhere. But ppl counter it immediately by saying 'fed has tools like increasing interest rates if it really becomes a problem, they know better than you'

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#215

Post by swiley » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

gremlinsinc wrote: post #57

johbjo wrote: post #29

Overall production/consumption has probably decreased. This means that food has has higher relative share of consumption. Therefore food prices shift right?

Production has decreased, or at least ability to ship it has. Consumption is probably the same for most families, albeit they may buy 10% more to make sure certain staples are good in case of a shortage.. more so during the ebb/flow of covid-19 waves and lockdowns. So a family might end up wasting more food just to be sure they have enough for planned meals or alternatives. A lot of people are having mental health is…

I remember seeing an article about how some container ship crews haven't been able to leave their ships and see other people for crazy periods of time because of lockdowns. That can't be good for retention and shipping.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#216

Post by lupire » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

propertymagnate wrote: post #144

TeMPOraL wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest risk here - and the reason why talking about "bringing civilization" anywhere attracts strong pushback - is that historically, what happened was people ending up held hostage over supply of fishing equipment. Giving hungry people fish obviously isn't a good solution, because then the fish giver becomes a SPOF. But also because the fish giver now has power over the hungry, and some givers will abus…

I read SPOF as Single Point Of Fish at first.

Suspicious Provider of Fish.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#217

Post by lottin » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:59 PM UTC

gher-shyu3i wrote: post #169

luxuryballs wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These boom bust cycles are caused by fiat money, inflationary debt/spending, government stimulus and over regulation that causes false market signals and creates bubbles, it’s not a capitalism problem, capitalism would be the solution.

Fiat money is the outcome of unfettered capitalism. The government needs money to pay its loans that it took with interest, so what does it do? Detach the currency from anything tangible like gold or other precious metals, then print more money as it desires, devaluing the hard work of people who are trying to save money. There's a reason that interest and usury are prohibited in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Mar…

People don't save money. They save consumption, and the savings are in the form of money or other assets.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#218

Post by gher-shyu3i » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:59 PM UTC

zo1 wrote: post #207

gher-shyu3i wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fiat money is the outcome of unfettered capitalism. The government needs money to pay its loans that it took with interest, so what does it do? Detach the currency from anything tangible like gold or other precious metals, then print more money as it desires, devaluing the hard work of people who are trying to save money. There's a reason that interest and usury are prohibited in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Mar…

So in the same paragraph you blame capitalism for something the government does without our consent? We have to at least assign blame equally, instead of picking and choosing which involved systems and actors to blame. Especially if we can't agree on the actual causes. On a side note: I have seen some good analysis/speculation/theorizing done about how interest/loaning would work in a world without government-regulat…

We have to move away from interest as an underlying mechanism, it's one of the root causes of the chaos in today's financial world.

The superior model is investments, similar to how VCs invest in companies in exchange for equity. Loans are to be relegated to charity only. If we apply all this, loans will become close to non-existent. We have seen this successfully work because interest is prohibited in Islam, yet it was able to flourish especially in the Islamic Golden Age to push the boundaries of knowledge and science and exploration, during a time where Europe was in the dark ages.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#219

Post by swiley » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

gher-shyu3i wrote: post #210

swiley wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure interest isn't prohibited in Christianity (not protestant Christianity anyway.)

It was prohibited in early Christianity before the Church gave in and allowed it.

I'd like to hear your source for this.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#220

Post by PragmaticPulp » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

tinus_hn wrote: post #39

Turns out lockdowns aren’t free, even if you just don’t compensate businesses.

This article is primarily about inflation in developing nations like Indonesia.

The inflation in countries like the United States is much lower (around 3% on food compared to 1.5% overall inflation).

Ironically, some of that inflation is due to increased demand for goods providing more demand for shipping services due to lockdown. People had a lot more money to save or spend during lockdown (personal savings rates spiked upward), so shipping prices are inflating due to demand. Food is often shipped, so these inflation costs are partially from shipping costs.