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U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

bls.gov

241–250 of 918 posts

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soft drinks are a loss leader for fast food, which is why judging McDos on the price of a single item like soda or mcmuffin is a bit oversimplified. Pricing strategy fluctuates (sometimes) independently of supply costs.

Ha ha, no. That's where the money is. They have like 90 percent margins on those syrup/water mixes. ... I like discussions about inflation though because everyone brings up a particular item from their own budget. For instance, have you priced Little Debbie Zebra Cake Rolls lately? Did you even know they exist? It's like a mixture of a Swiss Roll and a Zebra Cake and they are completely awesome and I'm pretty sure th…

I know this is sarcastic, but bakery outlets can be a great way to get your sugar junk for cheap if there's one nearby, though they're all pretty close to expiration.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s almost like there’s some relationship between supply, demand, and price. It’s ok I’m sure google is working on an AI model to establish that.

Why is food, energy, medical care, housing subject to supply and demand? Why are the lifeblood of the species constrained on demand and flowing freely when they look away? It certainly is convenient for you to believe the masses have to accept austerity in deference to normal humans who repeat these handy phrases and point to any old phenomena they control, assigning an immutable key-value pair to your memory. “Gathe…

Everything is subject to supply and demand. Why would those four things not be? Even if the money was coming from the government they would all still be subject to supply and demand. Even if money didn't exist those things would all be subject to supply and demand. What exactly do you propose to change that?

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corn seems to be a good leading indicator here[1]. Cash bids were $4 in 2019, $5 in 2020, $6 in 2021, $7 at the start of 2022, $9 when the war in Ukraine broke out, down to $8 in June, and now at $7.50 where it has remained stable at since the beginning of July. Which suggests that things are indeed slowing. [1] Which likely ends up being a proxy for oil, but as a farmer I watch food commodities much more closely.

How much corn are you getting for $9?

1 bushel

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to be glib or intentionally controversial, but: is this a "market correction" for beef not really being as sustainable at recent consumption levels? Is it a bad thing if beef becomes significantly more expensive?

They’re pushing all kind of narratives to make cattle seem like they’re terrible for the world, and linking everything to climate change. No one wants to accept the push to start eating bugs. Don’t give into the WEF propaganda https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/18/cows-sea...

Who exactly is "they"? The... Big Bug industry?

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coastal and flood prone insurance is rising in the US at a higher fixed rates the next couple of years because of federal policy changes that reduce the insurance cross-subsidy for riskier areas.

This was my experience while living in Florida. Hurricane/Flood risks made it so there was no "shopping around". I had a house (built in the mid-60s) with a ton of tree cover. There was basically one company who'd even talk to me. I can't imagine what they'd charge me these days.

As a Florida resident, the florida situation is screwed but not because of hurricanes and flood risks.

The problem is our laws about assignment of benefits and how insurance lawsuits get punished. So what happens is anytime any storm comes in you get swarmed with roofing companies wanting you to assign all benefits to them and they offer you a "free" roof. They then keep telling the roofing companies their previous estimate for roof was too low and they needed more money to fix the roof. At the end of the day the insurance companies end up paying double the cost of the roof because that's cheaper then the roofing company suing them, having to prove the costs they are being quoted are excessive, and if they fail they have to pay it out anyway + attorney fees.

We saw this ourselves when we had a hail storm at our house and didn't know any better. We did the AOB to a roofing company. That company never even looked at the roof. They called the insurance company, who sent an adjuster who looked at the roof. The insurance company wrote us a $15k check for a replacement roof. 3 months later (when the roofing company hadn't even looked at our roof still, let alone given us an estimate) we get a notification from the insurance company that the roofing company told the insurance company it would cost an additional $8k, and the insurance company wrote them a check.

We cancelled the roofing contract and shopped around. Got our new roof replaced within a month for $13k (we had 3 quotes from different companies, no company quoted more than $14k).

This is why insurance is going up so much in Florida, and why insurance companies are leaving the state. Last I saw, Florida leads the country in insurance litigation cases per year by a ridiculously wide margin to the 2nd highest.

And I'm not an insurance company defender or anything, but all home owners and renters in florida are all paying the price for this.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#247
post #194

Good news I guess. But my electricity price literally doubled. My house insurance is up 30%. My gas bill is up by a lot. Have you seen the price of oreos? The $5 box at Taco Bell is my splurge and I'm trying to cut back on everything I can.

One thing about inflation is that it will never go back down. Best case scenario is it stops growing.

Deflation can occur; it's rare, but it's not a never scenario.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corn seems to be a good leading indicator here[1]. Cash bids were $4 in 2019, $5 in 2020, $6 in 2021, $7 at the start of 2022, $9 when the war in Ukraine broke out, down to $8 in June, and now at $7.50 where it has remained stable at since the beginning of July. Which suggests that things are indeed slowing. [1] Which likely ends up being a proxy for oil, but as a farmer I watch food commodities much more closely.

How much corn are you getting for $9?

[deleted]

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#249

Good news I guess. But my electricity price literally doubled. My house insurance is up 30%. My gas bill is up by a lot. Have you seen the price of oreos? The $5 box at Taco Bell is my splurge and I'm trying to cut back on everything I can.

Oh and the quality is going down. Inching down the yogurt in the cup. Reducing nuts in the cereal. Nutty bars taste like plastic. Corners are being cut.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#250
post #146

What are the actual metrics they use to measure inflation? My electric bill is 33% higher than previous years, my gas bill is similar. City/Water/Sewer doubled. Trips to the grocery store are up close to 20%, and gasoline doubled. Everything you actually purchase day-to-day is up far more than the inflation benchmarks, so much so it’s beginning to feel like propaganda. I overnight went from thinking “I make good mone…

> What are the actual metrics they use to measure inflation?

The long answer is here: https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/home.htm

The short answer is, the BLS samples prices of many consumer products in various categories (some from direct observation, some from consumer surveys) and calculates a weighted average[1] of the prices. The result is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The consumer price inflation is calculated as the percentage difference of the current CPI compared to twelve months ago.

[1] Weights: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/relative-importance/home.htm

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