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Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

bloomberg.com

231–240 of 605 posts

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#232

"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…

Here in Australia, some food prizes are up because the farming industry relies on cheap backpacker labor. Borders are shut so no backpackers come in, so a lot of fruit died on the field. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/world/australia/agricultu... It should be noted that the entire industry is notorious for doing every dodgy thing they can get away with, wage theft, rent theft, extreme conditions, so local workers…

That's amazing. Australia's farm labor is primarily relatively-wealthy vacationers who need a boost while they are far from home?

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#233
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but inflation is not a feeling. It needs to be estimated using a statistical methodology.

It is a feeling to ppl who want to start a family, buy a house. Official Inflation doesn't count for those. What else is the word that we can use here?

In my opinion it's a perceived increase in prices, which may or may not real, and may or may not have to do with inflation.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most shipping companies in the stock market have rocketed in the past 2-3 months, so that opportunity has passed I think.

Common stock advice: if you hear about an investment opportunity, you've probably already missed out. Ex: Bitcoin stocks (yes they're stocks / investment products) are only really reported on when they're at an all-time high. They may go up a little more if you're reading something fresh off the press, but it's not going to go up as much as it already has. I mean if you bought a year ago you could have had a 10x retu…

If “hear about” means major media wrote a news story about it because it has gone up then yes. But I’ve learned about profitable investments from places like twitter, reddit etc if you are deeply plugged in to what is happening.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#235
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was "lockdowns are free" a serious position held by a relevant number of people?

I’m sure these 13.5 million people in the US, who now can’t afford food anymore, wouldn’t have been such enthusiastic lockdown supporters had they realized they would pay the price themselves.

The most enthusiastic lockdown supporters are unlikely to be the ones that can't afford food now. Much more likely to be people reading HN or writing for the NYT.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#236
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If I have $10 from 10 years ago, they're worth less today. The government's incompetence and engagement in usury has caused my money to lose value.

They are pretty competent at getting inflation to the intended target. Maybe you're missing something?

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#237
CPI is a joke, they do something called hedonic adjustments to things like tech products etc. It's completely subjective and BS. Technology is deflationary, things should get cheaper because we go after producing them in creative ways one demand is high.

CPI is absurd, it only perpetuates consumerism and punishes savers. We product 2x the food society consumes - mostly wasted away, just with some supply chain efficiency - there's a lot more room for food not to be expensive though.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#238
post #118

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

I got massively downvoted in my other comment for pointing out that there are boom and bust cycles and that COVID just brought ours closer to one of the larger bust cycles, but in the interest of informing (I wrote that on a phone) I found a link which explains it much better than I could[0].

I highly recommend taking 30 minutes to watch it, the person speaking is a well regarded economist.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#240
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny enough this is exactly what happened my last EU4 game.
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