Earlier quoted context omitted.
And by “free” we mean “added to the gigantic mountain of debt our children must pay off“
Pay off to whom?
Various holders of US debt. The federal reserve, foreign holders, mutual funds, banks, local governments.
US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
351–360 of 566 posts
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
In blind taste tests, Coke performs about as well as Pepsi. However, people still overwhelmingly seem to like Coke, so it's really because they like the brand. If they reduced advertising, their brand will slowly be eroded.
Blind tests sponsored by whom?
Blind sponsors
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve always thought this was somewhat apocryphal/a myth. Did it actually occur?
this is a 'haha Americans so dumb' myth that's been blown up - it's the result of a NY Times article that outline a private restaurant chain focus group result. So tldr; some people in a private focus group questioned the value of a 1/3 pound burger over the same priced 1/4 pound burger. It's not indicative of any system numerical illiteracy. I will add there were no actual data released - it's solely based on an ane…
Even more than that, the accounts we get claim that some of the people in the focus group said the 1/3 pound burger was smaller than the quarter pounder. Even if those claims are accurate, it's possible they were looking at the diameter, since the 1/3 pounder has two smaller patties stacked on top of each other, while the quarter pounder is one large patty.
Most places that report on this say that the third pounder was cheaper and that Americans preferred the taste, but they didn't buy it because of the name and their poor math skills. But its name was changed to "Papa Burger," and it still didn't become the quarter pounder killer it's portrayed as.
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you check Coke's financial statements, you'll see that although revenue has risen quickly, cost of revenue has risen about as fast, leading to relatively unchanged gross profit margins (36% so far in 2022, compared with 40%+ in every year from 1985-2014 and between 33%-39% from 2015 to 2021). Word from industry press is that the rising price of aluminum has been a major driver of the increased costs. I don't know…
Generic brands often don't come in aluminum cans, assuming the industry rumours are true.
In the US it is usually easy to find generic brand sodas in cans. Most large-ish grocery stores have them.
https://www.tomthumb.com/shop/product-details.208010001.html
https://www.kroger.com/p/big-k-cola-soda/0001111049680?
https://www.publix.com/pd/publix-cola/RIO-PCI-106059
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sam-s-Cola-Soda-Pop-12-fl-oz-24-P...
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/h-e-b-original-cola-7-5-o...
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#355I was just reading "Ray Dalio on the Downturn: 'There's a Lot More to Come'" [1], which said: Inflation in the United States has risen 8.2 percent in the past 12 months. While the Federal Reserve’s long-term inflation target is 2 percent, Dalio predicted that the central bank will go for a more realistic target of around 4.5 to 5 percent. Based on those numbers, he believes the real interest rate could land in betwee…
Ray Dalio has been calling for a massive unwinding for a long time. It has gotten really tiresome.
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#356MoM inflation is still unfortunately 0.4% which is about 5% annualized. I think it's unfortunate that reporting focuses around yearly inflation which isn't really useful for talking about inflation in the moment.
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#357It's a bit higher in Denmark and I have a little too much stored as fiat in the bank. What is a safe asset to store value while inflation is >10% in a developed country?
I think its a hard call. Real estate is inflated. Stocks are too, but seems less so than property, at least in Australia. Traditional flight to safety like gold has significant gains last few years so are you buying another peak? Meanwhile you know cash is devaluing 5-10% per year. For my non-expert opinion I think Australia shares are fairly good relatively currently, but I say that as an Australian. Its reasonably…
> Real estate is inflated. Stocks are too, but seems less so than property, at least in Australia.
But are they? To me many stocks look comparatively flat over 30 years given the fact that they should point upwards just to correct for inflation in the currency they are denominated in and even more upwards when taking into account productivity gains.
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#358It bears repeating because this is a common mistake in inflation discussions: a decrease in inflation metrics means price increases are slowing down, it doesn’t mean that prices are going down （that would require a negative CPI print). Also, this number is year over year, so the decrease just means the price increases between Oct 21 and Oct 22 are not as steep as between Sept 21 to Sept 22, which is not hard to achie…
As a general consumer, the slowdown in the erosion of my earning power is welcome news. My gamma hedging hedging costs have never been lower.
Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#359Looking at the macro picture is so misleading. The only categories that are really down are natural gas, used cars & trucks, and apparel. Everything else is up but it is being masked by the huge drop in natural gas prices (which is due to the situation in Europe).
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Re: US annual inflation declines to 7.7% in October vs. 7.9% expected
#360Looking at the macro picture is so misleading. The only categories that are really down are natural gas, used cars & trucks, and apparel. Everything else is up but it is being masked by the huge drop in natural gas prices (which is due to the situation in Europe).
Weird that gas prices dropped, I would have thought they'd be up. Any insight?