Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent • Hacker News Board

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#161

Post by dntrkv » Wed, May 12, 2021, 12:11 AM UTC

henriquez wrote: post #61

drewcon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The real cost of goods is observably higher”? I don’t get how anecdotal evidence trumps repeatedly buying and measuring the cost of a vast cross section of products everyday people consume? Help me understand the conspiracy here? Who is doing the rigging and how?

The Fed and U.S. government are rigging our economic system to backdoor tax the middle class while gaslighting all of us into thinking that this is normal. You don’t print $10T and handwave away millennia of basic economic principles. Help me understand how CPI is not a joke with respect to how it’s used to say “this is normal.” Everything I’m interested in spending money on, new hires for my company, real estate, ca…

> real estate

Well, yeah. Nobody is trying to hide this fact.

> gas

https://www.gasbuddy.com/charts

> food

Check the BLS data. In the short term, some food is def up, but less than 5%

Over the long term, it's down.

> cars

Down over the long term. Up in the last year.

> computer hardware

Yeah new hardware is gonna be expensive due to that whole chip shortage thing

> lumber

lol yeah all that lumber you're spending your money on

The only thing that's up by a factor of 2x is lumber, and I'm gonna bet that's only on your list because of all the headlines it's making.

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#162

Post by MontyCarloHall » Wed, May 12, 2021, 12:12 AM UTC

bcrosby95 wrote: post #156

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. A 2021 Accord is far superior to a 1990 Rolls Royce or other ultraluxury car in terms of amenities, engine power, quietness, build quality, etc. That’s not even mentioning the leaps and bounds in efficiency and safety. I’d argue cars have gotten effectively cheaper over the years, as they’ve dramatically improved in every respect. If you could still buy a 1990 Accord manufactured today, it would probably sell…

So what you're saying is we're in a period of massive deflation. Why stop at the 90s, lets look at the early 19th century. The early Model T was $20k inflation adjusted. A modern car would have been millions.

>So what you're saying is we're in a period of massive deflation.

For some goods like cars and electronics, yes. For other goods and services (e.g. education, healthcare, childcare), no.

Have a look here to see which goods’ prices have inflated, and which have deflated: https://cdn.howmuch.net/articles/price-changes-in-usa-in-pas...

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#163

Post by samspenc » Wed, May 12, 2021, 12:33 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #146

missedthecue wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's less expensive right now than it was a year ago?

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm Apparel, down -2.5% Medical care commodities, down 2.4% Motor vehicle insurance, down 2.5% Airline fares, down 15.1%

I would reckon that airline fares are down because of the pandemic -- people don't want to fly because they are afraid of getting infected, and that's causing a "deflation" in ticket prices.

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#164

Post by sbelskie » Wed, May 12, 2021, 12:49 AM UTC

simonblack wrote: post #159

The problem with printing money by governments is that every dollar printed means the value of that money is spread thinner and thinner. That means you need more of those thinner dollars to make up the value. It's like watering down the beer. You'll need to drink more glasses of that weaker beer to get the same effect. Every government gets away with printing money for a very short time, then the Zimbabwe Effect take…

When will it happen?

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#165

Post by ping_pong » Wed, May 12, 2021, 12:56 AM UTC

samspenc wrote: post #163

gruez wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm Apparel, down -2.5% Medical care commodities, down 2.4% Motor vehicle insurance, down 2.5% Airline fares, down 15.1%

I would reckon that airline fares are down because of the pandemic -- people don't want to fly because they are afraid of getting infected, and that's causing a "deflation" in ticket prices.

But by that measure, everything is up or down because of the pandemic. A lot of the inflation we are seeing is because of supply chain issues specifically caused by the pandemic. For example, lumber is only because they closed down mills, and chips are short because companies cancelled a ton of orders, etc. I myself went on a trip because plane tickets are so damn cheap right now.

But I do agree that we are in a period of very high inflation.

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#166

Post by ping_pong » Wed, May 12, 2021, 12:57 AM UTC

lumost wrote: post #148

bradlys wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$4.20 would be nice. I just paid $4.87 this last weekend. :(

Gas in Boston is ~$2.97 a little north of where it was pre-covid. https://ycharts.com/indicators/boston_retail_price_of_gasoli... . Something is going on with California prices to push it to $4.20+ a gallon. https://ycharts.com/indicators/san_francisco_retail_price_of...

Gas taxes galore

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#167

Post by deadbolt » Wed, May 12, 2021, 1:07 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #98

prichino wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The inflation has been tampered with quite a bit over the years. It's how you explain how the avg American is much poorer than his parents. I.e. in real terms, as in being able to buy: quality food, quality car, quality house (what? renting? no, not the same) I like this website as it uses the older methodology which has been twice updated it seems: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

>quality car Ironic considering that the reason cars have gotten more expensive was because their quality increased. >quality house They've gotten bigger over the decades, better equipped, and the monthly payments have actually gone down https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/03/what-if-housing-pri...

I won't disagree with you that cars have increased in quality, but I don't believe homes have.

Bigger isn't better. Better equipped? Sure, maybe.

When I look at the new homes under construction today (or over the past few decades), they're shit. They have more floor space, and that's about all.

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#168

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 12, 2021, 1:49 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #157

RachelF wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of fiddling done on the numbers. One thing they do to keep CPI low is using "equivalent items". So if the iPhone 4 cost $500 ten years ago, and you can now buy an "equivalent" cheap Android from WalMart for $50 then they measure this as deflation.

And that's fine right? 13 years ago an enthusiast-class graphics card went for $300[1]. Now it costs $650[2] (more if you include scalpers). Does that mean PC gaming hardware has inflated by 2x? [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/2556 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series

[deleted]

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#169

Post by tablespoon » Wed, May 12, 2021, 2:11 AM UTC

ping_pong wrote: post #166

lumost wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas in Boston is ~$2.97 a little north of where it was pre-covid. https://ycharts.com/indicators/boston_retail_price_of_gasoli... . Something is going on with California prices to push it to $4.20+ a gallon. https://ycharts.com/indicators/san_francisco_retail_price_of...

Gas taxes galore

Doesn't California also require custom blends for its gasoline, which also tends to make it more expensive? My understanding is that only refineries in California make them, which prevents out-of-state gasoline from being imported to help supply quickly match increases in demand.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gasoline-manipulation...

Re: Consumer prices increase 2.6 percent

#170

Post by novalis78 » Wed, May 12, 2021, 2:14 AM UTC

dewlinedew2 wrote: post #108

ellipsisfrog wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are being downvoted but this is also my experience. My grocery bill is up more than 15% like for like (I shop exclusively online so it's easy to track) and more than that in total because of volume increases. My utility rates are up >10%. Housing costs are way up where I live. I would guess my overall baseline cost of living is up at least 10% when you remove the impact from lower commuting and eating out costs.

Watch out for downsizing of the containers too

Precisely. There is manipulation across the board. Some of the packaging is getting really ridiculous. The argument that higher inflation would indicate that the economy has been contracting could be phrased differently: What if the "great slowdown" as per Peter Thiel is one in value, lack in progress, cheaper quality products, shaving off everywhere to retain a facade, pushing out real world goals and targets to future decades etc. This does not mean there won't be any progress or some obvious deflation (electronics, biotech). It's still an important discussion to be had (the effect of found monetary standards on the economy/technological progress. http://wtf1971.com/ and The Bitcoin Standard obviously have a different perspective on these reported inflation numbers.