Live data from Hacker News

U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

wsj.com

61–70 of 99 posts

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#61
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? If Republicans control congress what will be different? Is the US going to be the only country in the world to get inflation under control? Is the GOP that good? What are their solutions (serious question)? Because all I here is "CRT bad" and "don't say gay". I never hear anything proposed to solve any of this.

None of that matters. "current situation bad = vote different color" for some.

Also it bears mentioning that the president's brain is actively melting, and yet our VP is so undesirable and unlikeable that I don't want anything unfortunate to happen to Biden, or for him to get 25th amendment'd. All I can do is vote for the opposition, and by God this is the first time I'm voting Republican/Independent/Conservative.

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#62
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? Stuff are supposed to become cheaper as technology advances yet we only either get high or low price increases, all to fund the rich in the government.

>> You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? If you have debt, you will be worse off. Wages get lowered over time, too. Imagine your salary gets cut year after year but your mortgage, car payment, and student loan payment all stay the same. That's deflation. In the same way that unexpected inflation is good for borrowers (since they get to pay back a loan with cheap…

Yeah, but guess who encourages debt.

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#63
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the new baseline, you won't see inflation lower than this long-term until the system completely collapses under its own weight. The only thing keeping things running is cheap money and there will need to be more of it. Any "solution" that looks like austerity will result in destabilizing unrest. In the USA, Republicans will campaign on inflation but make money as cheap as ever as soon as they have control, be…

Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? Stuff are supposed to become cheaper as technology advances yet we only either get high or low price increases, all to fund the rich in the government.

> Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke.

Deflation is more of a nightmare than a joke. It basically means the economy has significantly contracted and that wages are going to plummet across the board. This leads to a massive spike in debt defaults.

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it is. This doesn't show it, though. We have inflation from (at least) one of two causes. First, all the money created to keep the economy from falling apart during the Covid semi-shutdown. Well, who did that? Biden? Yes, and also Trump. I literally got checks in the mail with Trump's signature on them. So blaming this on Biden seems rather unfair. The other reason for inflation is the economic blockade of Ru…

The economy should have failed during the 2020 crisis. That's the point. Government intervention not only prolongs the pain but inevitability increases it as it tries to save.

Sorry that’s just not true, government intervention can absolutely break the economy out of equity traps when a recession hits. If people are scared to lend/spend money it’s a self fulfilling prophecy, and can make things much worse

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#65
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? Stuff are supposed to become cheaper as technology advances yet we only either get high or low price increases, all to fund the rich in the government.

> Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. Deflation is more of a nightmare than a joke. It basically means the economy has significantly contracted and that wages are going to plummet across the board. This leads to a massive spike in debt defaults.

Yeah, but not any economy, to be a nightmare requires a nightmarish economy.

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#66
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? Stuff are supposed to become cheaper as technology advances yet we only either get high or low price increases, all to fund the rich in the government.

'Stuff' should be plural, I agree

Felt off, but went with it. Looks like I made a new friend too xD.

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#67
post #3

Anyone have opinions on how long this inflation spike will last, or what the peak will be? I seriously thought we had maybe peaked earlier this year, and it looks like the peak so far was in March for core inflation excluding food and energy. However, maybe high energy prices will feed back into other consumer prices eventually, triggering more inflation. The producer price index (PPI) is still really wild, so maybe…

This is the new baseline, you won't see inflation lower than this long-term until the system completely collapses under its own weight. The only thing keeping things running is cheap money and there will need to be more of it. Any "solution" that looks like austerity will result in destabilizing unrest. In the USA, Republicans will campaign on inflation but make money as cheap as ever as soon as they have control, be…

Yeah I think that’s the important part to understand, deflation is so much worse and can cause an equity trap which could send us into a severe depression.

Inflation sucks but let’s not be drastic

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#68
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the new baseline, you won't see inflation lower than this long-term until the system completely collapses under its own weight. The only thing keeping things running is cheap money and there will need to be more of it. Any "solution" that looks like austerity will result in destabilizing unrest. In the USA, Republicans will campaign on inflation but make money as cheap as ever as soon as they have control, be…

Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? Stuff are supposed to become cheaper as technology advances yet we only either get high or low price increases, all to fund the rich in the government.

what if your income is also lowered over time?

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#69
post #3

Anyone have opinions on how long this inflation spike will last, or what the peak will be? I seriously thought we had maybe peaked earlier this year, and it looks like the peak so far was in March for core inflation excluding food and energy. However, maybe high energy prices will feed back into other consumer prices eventually, triggering more inflation. The producer price index (PPI) is still really wild, so maybe…

You can generally expect US inflation figures to track pretty closely to oil prices. Especially since most of our interstate freight is diesel trucks and nearly every market is dependent on oil in one way or another. I would expect oil to stay high for a while as the international market becomes accustomed to the loss of Russia as a producer.

OPEC is in the unique position of producing more oil at a high price. In addition, the Biden administration is not friendly to exploring new oil resources and fracking. I would expect inflation and high fuel prices to be a standard feature of life for the next 3 years unless we reduce demand drastically.

Re: U.S. inflation reached a new four-decade high of 8.6% in May

#70
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. You telling me that if gas and food and rent lowered in price over time, I will be worse off? Stuff are supposed to become cheaper as technology advances yet we only either get high or low price increases, all to fund the rich in the government.

> Deflation being much much worse is a nice joke. Deflation is more of a nightmare than a joke. It basically means the economy has significantly contracted and that wages are going to plummet across the board. This leads to a massive spike in debt defaults.

To what extent is the risk due to a society built on debt?
Post reply on HN