Live data from Hacker News

U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

bls.gov

711–720 of 918 posts

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

#711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prospective fuel shortages in Europe are mostly to do with natural gas, not oil and oil derivatives, no?

If Europe ends up with a massive shortage of natural gas for heating, would that significantly increase the demand for heating oil?

No, because the types of fossil fuels do not substitute well. You can't use oil for heating in Gas burners, industrial processes etc.

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

#712

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.

wrong, it's a shitty metric. consumers care about inflation bc it represe ts their quality of life getting more expensive. trimming is the equivalent of saying "lol just downgrade" which is not a good answer. you can't watch people switch their crab and milk for krab and powdered milk then be like "oh we'll just trim that out of inflation lmao". inflation is not supposed to measure change in average cost of necessiti…

And that basket naturally shifts over time as certain goods which have reasonable substitutes rise sharply in price, as technology changes, as tastes change, etc. It would obviously be silly to compare against the same basket of goods as was used in 1970.

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

#713
post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard the goal was 100% of the country. Can you point to a source?

Putin's speech on February 24th, the day of the invasion > "To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation." How do you demilitarize a nation by taking only 20% of it? The only way to do this would be to capture the entirety of the country.

I was talking about official statements defining the goal as occupying 100% of Ukraine's. Taking an ambiguous word in a propaganda speech doesn't cut it.

> How do you demilitarize a nation by taking only 20% of it? The only way to do this would be to capture the entirety of the country.

Really? What if Ukraine surrenders and negotiates sovereignty over the remaining 80% of their territory while dismantling (or at least greatly reducing) the capabilities of their armed forces?

That's just one of the possibilities that comes to mind which does not involve occupying the entire territory.

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

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil heat can be tough, but the prices will go down. I would not change things just as a reaction to these prices...

There are other reasons: the boiler is from the 1940s (59% efficiency) and the oil tank is at least 30 years old. It's not pretty if the oil tank leaks... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djpH8pUSpjM

Sounds paranoid. Is your tank indoors? It'll probably outlast you.

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

#715

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And par for the course for Weinstein, he makes an interesting point while wrapping it in a vale of needless conspiracy mongering. Yes, the rate of inflation is slightly different for different products and services (it is a "field" rather than a "scalar"). Yes, it would be nice if the government reported the entire inflation "field" rather than just the top-of-the-line aggregated inflation number. Does this mean the…

>"Does this mean the government or economists are "lying" (his word)?" The way I see it, it is in the government's interest to "lie" about the rate of inflation because it is advantageous for them to do so. Inflation is used as a tool in monetary and fiscal policy. "Inflating away" debt is a real strategy and policy. "Lie" is a loaded term, and perhaps this is a limitation of our vocabulary. Because inflation has no…

Not just the debt, things like SS payments are also tied to inflation.

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

#716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue has to do with the harvest coming up. The next harvest will come from fields with less fertilizer and higher fuel prices. We can expect corn prices in the fall jumping significantly. Next year will even be worse, we are using a fuel reserves now and fertilizer will still be an issue (unless peace is made with Russia). I’m expecting a significant increase in the next 2-3 months then again in 15-16 months.

Small semantic issue, but “make peace with Russia” implies they’re not the aggressors. Russia can end this tomorrow, by withdrawing from Ukraine. You probably didn’t mean to imply anything, but it’s a sensitive topic, semantics matter.

No post body was provided.

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

#717
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if Ukraine doesn’t surrender I think you mean if Russia doesn't surrender. If Ukraine was to surrender, we'd have bigger problems than an increase in beef costs. I don't see any universe where Russia wins this war.

You should read reports by actual experts instead of media. The RUSI - Royal United Services Institute - is a leading UK military institute that had boots on the ground assessing the situation. Here is their assessment. https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-r... "At present, however, several Russian advantages and Ukrainian weaknesses are leading to an attritional conflict that risks a protracted…

This will be over in a few days"- the"einxperts" in February

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

#718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insects are being promoted as a way to hit UN’s sustainable development goals [1] There’s also an industry emerging, with big pushes from organizations like WEF, to normalize eating bugs [2]. Investors are getting in on this trend too [3] 1. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/6/557 2. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/why-we-need-to-give-i... 3. https://fortune.com/2022/05/24/war-ukraine-big-ag-insect-fee...

in what world will people eat bugs instead of beef, do bugs taste anywhere as good as beef? all the push from the supply side doesn't fix the demand problem.

Honestly they are really delicious and satiate in a similar way to meat. Try some grasshoppers next chance you get.

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

#719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you won't be wet from the rain, you'll be wet from your own sweat.

Modern rain gear is okay on that side but at great expense.

I ride like I'm getting paid for it, but that's just not really the case yet. Though it'll be amazing when some real innovation happens.

Even the highest end technical fabrics don't work very well when it's humid outside, which tends to happen a lot when it's raining.

If you're actually working hard, you'll be covered in your own sweat soon enough. Given the choice i usually just go with the rain instead.

Riding an ebike is a different matter, that's probably entirely doable with current tech.

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

#720

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving all private cars to electricity will increase total electricity consumption by 19% ( https://phys.org/news/2015-07-cars-electric.html ). This number is not something worrying in any way, and well manageable by the current incremental improvement of the electricity grid.

And the charging is primarily done during the night, where the grid (typically) is less strained. The biggest issue is that it currently doesn't align very well with things like solar. In my buildings parking garage there are 150 cars, where probably a good 30-40% of cars are BEVs. We're pulling a maximum of 32kW, or 400V/80A. I have yet to find my car not fully charged in the morning. It's a load balanced system, so…

Maybe in europe, but not in rural or surburban America where driving is a way of life. Lots of people would need to charge in the daytime.
Post reply on HN