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US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

theguardian.com

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Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#261

Post by AlexandrB »

IAmWorried wrote: post #241
unethical_ban wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notwithstanding the concerns about inflation, I challenge the notion that helping people feed their families when they're poor, redistributing wealth from the tippity-top to the middle and down, providing more education, and providing more healthcare to the elderly are "ridiculous". "Handout" is a dogwhistle.

My personal opinion is that the US government is mostly incompetent, and its employment structure incentivizes laziness and waste. Any expansion of government into the lives of the people is bound to backfire. The rich would just find a new way to hide their money, the food programs would be taken advantage of, etc. I think we already spend more per student than any other country, and our public education is mostly a…

> My personal opinion is that the US government is mostly incompetent

This is not some natural state of a affairs and more a matter of intentional policy[1] by one (and sometimes both) major parties. Consider the recent attempts to fuck up the USPS.

If you rewind ~60 years you find the US government sending people to the moon on extremely short timelines and building the foundations of the internet.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#262

Post by IAmWorried »

AlexandrB wrote: post #261
IAmWorried wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal opinion is that the US government is mostly incompetent, and its employment structure incentivizes laziness and waste. Any expansion of government into the lives of the people is bound to backfire. The rich would just find a new way to hide their money, the food programs would be taken advantage of, etc. I think we already spend more per student than any other country, and our public education is mostly a…

> My personal opinion is that the US government is mostly incompetent This is not some natural state of a affairs and more a matter of intentional policy[1] by one (and sometimes both) major parties. Consider the recent attempts to fuck up the USPS. If you rewind ~60 years you find the US government sending people to the moon on extremely short timelines and building the foundations of the internet. [1] https://en.wi…

Yeah, the situation is unfortunate. I don't really see a way out though, because government salaries are just not able to compete with the private sector - how is the government going to attract good people?

Let's be honest here - our world is headed towards "Snow Crash". All you can do is hope you land in a good burbclave.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#263

Post by Supermancho »

rsj_hn wrote: post #223
Supermancho wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Median Household networth of 25-49.9 percentile is $58K. Also not not poor. Hell, as a yearly income, that's poor much less a networth. Not destitute, but definitely poor. You can't afford to live anywhere near a city and probably live in a trailer or worse (shack with limited services). The metric is by household, so no splitting with roommates.

> Hell, as a yearly income, that's poor much less a networth. Not really, because this is primarily young people who are building savings. By retirement age, the savings are much higher even for the median household. Even in the 45-54 cohort, the median networth is 168K. By the time you reach 55-64, median HH income is $213K. Post-retirement, 65-74, median network is $266K. Then it starts to decline as people spend d…

> And an income of $58K is not "poor" for any age,

It is today and going forward, as far as anyone can tell.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#264

Post by Supermancho »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #252
Supermancho wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biden is used by the D party and allowed a little leeway when he's clear. To be fair, I'm not sure Biden is worse than Trump, who ran amok. It will take decades to recover from the damage done to parts of the country and world (eg lifting the freeze on coal-leases, lift ban on personnel landmines, judge appointments, etc).

Not everyone had an issue with the scotus appointments. Just because they were added by the conservatives l doesn't make their logic any less sound.

I was talking about the more numerous federal judges appointments, not SCOTUS. The SCOTUS impacts the average person less than they think.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#265

Post by kesselvon »

anm89 wrote: post #154
dlp211 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right but with massive debts and a fairly weak economy that is show signs of continuing to slow, this is exactly why the Fed is between a rock and a hard place. lol? whut? Stop talking about government debt, it's a stupid talking point used to beat people over the head with who want to govern by misleading voters into believing that government debt is the same as household debt. Also, what weak economy? Economic gr…

Saying lol doesn't invalidate basic economics > Stop talking about government debt, it's a stupid talking point Said not a single respectable person in economics or finance ever.

Debt isn't going to impact inflation in the near or medium term, so long as people keep buying Treasuries.

There's no real alternative to stuffing money into Treasuries, so it's kind of a moot point right now.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#266

Post by podgaj »

podgaj wrote: post #157
wayoutthere wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody wants to be the next Jimmy Carter who lets the fed raise interest rates to stem inflation because it invariably triggers a recession that gets said president and his party voted out of office. So rates will stay perpetually low.

Democrats are the Charlie Brown’s of politics. And Republicans are Lucy.

I guess getting downvoted on this means there is no chance of a third party....

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#267

Post by kesselvon »

somebodythere wrote: post #116
standardUser wrote: post #33

Inflation reduces the value of debt and an era of increased inflation stands to benefit a lot of households. Of course, it helps if wages go up alongside prices, and they have. But even without wage increases, the value of debt lost to inflation is likely worth more than the value of salary lost to inflation for many households.

How does inflation help debt become more serviceable if incomes don't go up to match?

There's not a lot of scenarios where inflation doesn't push wages up. At some point workers demand and receive an inflationary match.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#268

Post by podgaj »

rsj_hn wrote: post #196
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Poor people are a large majority? Like, 2/3? 3/4? Over the last generation, indications are far over half experienced regular struggles. 2019 - nearly 70 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 stashed away https://www.statista.com/chart/20323/americans-lack-savings/ 2021 - Firehosing cash directly to the public helped some: 25% had no emergency savings, 26% say they have some emergency savings https://www.cnbc.…

> Over the last generation, indications are far over half experienced regular struggles. Most people experience "regular struggles", by definition. Life is a struggle. But we have a way of defining who is poor and who isn't in terms of income, and it's good to use the same language as everyone else. The "large majority" of the U.S. is not poor. That's just obviously true from the income data I cited. If that data is…

>But we have a way of defining who is poor and who isn't in terms of income

Yes, the definitions. Is it a definition or a lived experience? Politicians love to define away poverty.

These definitions are how millionaires were able to claim they are poor to get assistance during COVID.

Life is a struggle. But why? Why is it a struggle in this country, the "richest" country? Why do I have to be homeless, living in a minivan, fighting a mental illness? That is by design. This squid game we are living in is a design, it has rules, and we can change them in a second. But most people just want to be the next million/billionaire so they are afraid that changing the rules will mean they do not get the piggy bank of money they dangle over your head.

As a society we are poor. Compared to people in countries like France and Finland, we are poor, because we are always faced with these life and death decisions about jobs and healthcare. That is what it feel like to be poor; always guarding yourself, always frightened.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#269

Post by Sammi »

mullingitover wrote: post #215
missinfo wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the CEO of Square who access to real world data at scale: Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It’s happening. https://twitter.com/jack/status/1451733913961783299

CEO of Square, but also kind of a crank who's long on crypto, so he has a vested interest in convincing people to YOLO their savings into crypto so he can cash in. I take his statements with several blocks of salt.

Just wow. So he's just a crank because he likes Bitcoin now?

How easily you just brushed off the successful startup ceo of not one, but two huge tech startups (Twitter, Square).

What do you think it takes to be able to do what he did? Oh no, he's just a crank because he likes Bitcoin now, let's just brush off everything he says from now on. It's not like he's someone who's actually proven himself capable and as someone worth listening to.

Re: US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis

#270

Post by littlestymaar »

anm89 wrote: post #108
littlestymaar wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will raise it as soon as inflation goes up, even if it cause the entire economy to struggle. Volker did exactly that in the early 80s.

> They will raise it as soon as inflation goes up Yoy 6% for october. Inflation is already up. What are they waiting for? 10%? 15%? Also Powell isn't Volker by a long shot. I don't recall the Volker pivot because a few traders weren't having a good day.

> Yoy 6% for october. Inflation is already up. What are they waiting for? 10%? 15%?

You realize that this figure was only calculated a few days ago, right? What reaction time do you expect?

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