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U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

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

#701
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father has worked in the meat industry his entire life and said that over the decades, he was shocked how unnaturally cheap meat has become. I'm in no way anti-meat, but a lot of people have normalized eating a huge amount of meat per day at ultra low cost, and internalized this as some basic right. Natural consumption of meat is to eat meat sporadically, not 3 times per day. I'm not questioning whether one likes…

> Natural consumption of meat is to eat meat sporadically, not 3 times per day. This is just an appeal to the way things were 70 years ago in the US. Much further back you had Native Americans absolutely eating tons of bison meat in the western US. Other tribes easily got fish for every meal. Others have been heavily vegetarian. There is no “natural consumption of meat”.

> There is no “natural consumption of meat”.

Yes. As you point out the consumption of meat varies greatly across cultures.

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

#702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But our unemployment rates were so low in 2019, how could they have been lower with higher inflation?

We have seen unemployment fall slightly below 2019 levels, but the more significant result of greater demand stimulation would have been reaching those levels of unemployment much faster, rather than taking a decade to recover from the great recession.

That seems to be entirely explained by labor force participation. Note the skyrocketing amounts of people with more than one job

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

#703
post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its tough when you live in an apartment with no storage. You often are paying more because you dont have room for bulk. Costco is great if you have a garage or basement though

I'm in a pretty small apartment in Manhattan (albeit with an abnormally large kitchen). I can always get the value of my Costco membership in my first trip there, even without a car. Basic goods like Advil, laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent are miles cheaper than other options in Manhattan.

Do you take an uber/taxi/etc? I always assumed that you'd need to buy in bulk quantities to make costco worth it here, which would require a car

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

#704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But our unemployment rates were so low in 2019, how could they have been lower with higher inflation?

high employment and higher inflation can go hand in hand, actually, just high unemployment and deflation can (in a recession).

Yeah that’s my point, inflation rates don’t really influence unemployment rates except at the margin

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

#705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point at specific goods? I can't think of a single thing that I buy on a regular basis that is twice as expensive as it was a few years ago.

I just looked at my older Walmart receipts. The cost of milk went from $1.35/gallon in February 2020 to over $4/gallon in 2022. Milk is just a quick and easy example. I’m sure I could find countless other examples if I took the time.

These odd local anecdotes are so silly - the benefit of having a Federal bureaucracy tracking prices is that they keep detailed records. Here's the nominal price of a gallon of milk over the last 25 years:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000709112

The average in Feb 2020 was $3.19/gallon. Today it's $4.15/gallon. So roughly 30% increase since then. The average cost of a gallon of milk since the mid 1990s has never been below $2.40/gallon so maybe that $1.35 you paid was a result of a panic during the early pandemic?

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

#706
post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bolt is about $26k. I looked it up last night while fantasizing about car purchases. I guess the Leaf is more expensive now, oops? Not sure why my point wouldn't still stand? The new car shortages are real but I don't see how they speak to long term EV viability which is what was being discussed. ICE cars are just as affected, and it's bound to get better eventually. EDIT: It appears you have lied. The price you…

They said the cheapest model with 200+ mile range, the base model you saw a lower price for is only 150 mile range.

Oh! Good catch, sorry.

This is still quibbling about details though. EVs are clearly here to stay.

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

#707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trimmed inflation is a better measure than non-trimmed for goods with substitutes. Bacon going up 1000% in price is not as bad as all food going up 5% in price because you can just stop eating bacon, but you can't just stop eating.

Yes but now you don't get to eat bacon and you're eating tofu bacon instead. You're still alive, but are you really living ? More seriously, that quality of life decrease is now completely ignored. I think it's worth acknowledging that it's happening.

Yeah but so much of happiness is relative and pure mindset. If you never knew about bacon or forgot about it, you would be just as happy.

And at the end of the day, it’s more important to be happy

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

#708
post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EVs are excellent grid batteries, with the incentives.

Excellent point, although I haven't seen this actually be done in practice either at grid scale or household scale. Do current EV's charging electronics support this use case?

Teslas aren’t currently bidirectional, some of the new Fords are, unsure about others.

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

#709
post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skip the thaw step and cook those things sous vide.

And eat microplastics? No thanks.

Do you think the steak is microplastic free? It's not: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/08/micropla....

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

#710
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…

Food: Cheese 2x from pre-pandemic. Eggs 2x from pp. Chicken 3x, Bacon 4x, Beef 1.5x

Construction: Sheathing products (plywood/osb) are 3x pre-pandemic, other wood is 2x (at least)

Insurance (health care) my employer is shielding it from me but it's like 8x from what it was 8 years ago.

I went from being a little casual with my money to being very frugal. My last raise was early 2020.

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