UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years • Hacker News Board

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#391

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

MrGilbert wrote: post #201

martinald wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assets are deflating at the moment though. S&P500 is down, property prices are down, etc. Asset prices are highly inversely correlated to interest rates, so for a 'rich' person you are actually much better off without inflation, as interest rates are lower and asset prices rise faster.

> "property prices are down, etc" Well, idk about your area, but property prices in northern Germany are still well above the 2020 mark.

Germany property prices are probably the most insane in EU.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#392

Post by 20after4 » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

benjaminwootton wrote: post #297

ROTMetro wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because only one class will come out of this with MORE assets that at some point will return back to their higher valuable. It's a completely facetious argument. Sure you lost your house, but think of how much the poor billionaire's paper value dropped (while the billionaires asset acquisition continued apace taking advantage of the firesale forced upon the lower classes).

It isn’t facetious. People with investments and assets have lost a stack as inflation has taken off and could be waiting for a long time to return to the peaks. On a long enough timeline I’m sure you are right, but this year and likely over the next few years nobody is winning.

If a billionaire loses 90% of their net worth, they are still rich.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#393

Post by dukeyukey » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

rcarr wrote: post #330

tacker2000 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are talking like inflation is some conspiracy wielded by “the rich” (who are they? Are they all friends with each other and plan all their schemes together?) against the “others”. Fact is the inflation we are seeing here is caused by the after effects of Covid, the Energy price surges caused by the Ukraine war and in the special case of UK - Brexit, which has lead to huge import shortages due to increased bureauc…

In the UK it is very hard not to look at it this way. Unlike the US and other countries, Covid stimulus was very much aimed at maintaining the status quo: there were no flat amount universal basic income style checks handed out to everyone as in the US - instead you got put on 80% furlough and had a large part of your salary paid for by the government. This basically meant the rich got ever richer whilst doing no wor…

> that is why the UK is being hit harder by inflation than any other country in the western world

I don't think that's true. Right now, UK inflation is lower than almost any European country east of Germany, including Sweden, and it seems inflation was running lower throughout COVID than even the US.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#394

Post by Tryk » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #345

Tryk wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the comparison between Norway and Sweden, two extremely similar countries in almost all respects. Food inflation in Sweden is 22.1% over 12-month [0] Food inflation in Norway is 8.8% over 12-months [1] Obviously someone is making money hand-over-fist from this 12.7% discrepancy. Comments like the one above are really disruptive to any constructive conversations. It is not a conspiracy. The comment above is (…

Norway and Sweden are hardly similar in this respect. Norway is a net food exporter . Sweden is a net food importer . That alone can account for much of the discrepancy.

I don't quite understand what you mean- Could you ground you statement with some source?

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#395

Post by pc_edwin » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #235

pc_edwin wrote: post #153

It's perplexing how some are quick to place all blame on "greedy price gouging capitalists" while you have a massive elephant in the room. As a society, we pride ourselves on being logical yet we ignore the predictable consequences of injecting trillions into the economy amidst heavily damaged supply chains? I'm not even referring to the downstream consequences such as the extreme fragility leading to blow ups like S…

Conventional economic policy lets you balance inflation with both monetary and fiscal policy. But there's no will to tax the money out of the economy again. The money printing delayed a lot of economic collapse that would otherwise have happened during the pandemic.

With all due respect, I'm of the opinion that this idea of maintaining an equilibrium through "easing" and "tightening" is a logical fallacy.

In practice, this theory has been shown to be deeply flawed with grave consequence. Each iteration of this easing/tightening cycle seems to make the entire system more fragile at an exponential rate.

In essence, with each iteration, the extent of easing or intervention needed is increasing exponentially. Simultaneously, the system's capacity to withstand tightening or normalization is decreasing exponentially, requiring further interventions sooner and with greater severity.

I believe this is the basis for prognoses such as Balaji's on the US economic hegemony. When examining the exponential increase of these factors, it becomes evident that there is little space left before hyperinflation sets in. While I do not think the collapse will occur in 90 days, it may transpire in 900 or even 3000 days.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#396

Post by mhb » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #362

samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

pass down wholesale price increases, etc. I think it is very important to note that when it comes to grocery price increases, even if suppliers are raising their prices (and this isn't always the case), groceries stores aren't just passing down wholesale price increases, they're raising prices even further. For grocery stores, this isn't an issue with (unqualified) "inflation", it's an issue of price gouging. https:/…

If only there was some mechanism to mediate that. Maybe competition.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#397

Post by mitthrowaway2 » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

lifty wrote: post #228

samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

Tell that to the economists, who predominantly say that inflation helps the poor, supposedly because they have loans.

Of course the poor are getting payday loans at interest rates of up to 664%[1], or credit card debt at 20%, both of which make inflation irrelevant, while the super-rich are taking out loans backed by their stock and real estate[2] at interest rates below inflation.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/16/map-shows-typical-payday-loa...

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2021/11/11/how-americ...

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#398

Post by willismichael » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

symlinkk wrote: post #336

UncleOxidant wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw $6.99 for a pack of 12 flour tortillas yesterday. Could not believe it. At that price I'll try making my own.

I find comments like this weird, I never think about purchases that small. I honestly have no idea how much I pay for tortillas normally but $7 would not even be a blip on my mental radar

It's just one banana. What could it cost, ten dollars?

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#399

Post by dukeyukey » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

jupp0r wrote: post #219

samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

Tragically (and perhaps comically) it's the blue collar class that is the cause of all of this by voting for Brexit.

German food inflation is running at 22%. Whatever the UK's issue is, it's Europe-wide.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#400

Post by kzrdude » Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #345

Tryk wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the comparison between Norway and Sweden, two extremely similar countries in almost all respects. Food inflation in Sweden is 22.1% over 12-month [0] Food inflation in Norway is 8.8% over 12-months [1] Obviously someone is making money hand-over-fist from this 12.7% discrepancy. Comments like the one above are really disruptive to any constructive conversations. It is not a conspiracy. The comment above is (…

Norway and Sweden are hardly similar in this respect. Norway is a net food exporter . Sweden is a net food importer . That alone can account for much of the discrepancy.

That could only makes sense if you count food in currency value, not in stuff you eat. Sweden is not great in agricultural productivity (terrestial argiculture), but it's a giant compared with Norway.

Maybe we should mention that Norway exports oil and gas, and Sweden does not.