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

grocerygazette.co.uk

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

#441

Post by sofixa »

Jimmc414 wrote: post #423
simonh wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hope you don't mind me re-posting this from another comment of mine, but since you specifically raise the UK it's actually more relevant here. In the UK it doesn't look like gouging is the issue: https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2023/01/31/food-companies-p... Honestly you're right that inflation can benefit the well off, but I don't buy the conspiracy theory angle. "The Establishment" has been holding inflation rates…

>It's (inflation) been the number 1 priority for central banks since the early 90s. I might believe this if M2 hadn't increased 4x since 2000 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL

What has that have to do with inflation in the UK?

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

#442

Post by epups »

random_upvoter wrote: post #264

There seems to be a widely accepted and unchallenged consensus that political power is unable to address inflation. Maybe it ain't necessarily so? In 1971 Nixon froze prices and wages by executive order. But these days the political world seems oddly submissive to whatever the market wants to do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock

Nixon's economic measures were a disaster that led to inflation and crisis. You can see that directly in your link btw.

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

#443

Post by bruce343434 »

jlengrand wrote: post #290
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.

Trying to be positive in an ocean of poo, making your own tortillas is cheap, fast, kinda fun to do with kids and you can augment them for extra flavour. You can even batch prepare them in advance as long as they're not in contact with air. Many of those are the same. Pizza dough : once a month take 30 minutes preparing 10 rolls and in the freezer. And as a bonus, less chemicals in your system.

By far the most abundant chemical in any modern human is dihydrogen monoxide, I'm not sure that any hydrocarbon you will find in a tortilla is really even a comparison.

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

#444

Post by favaq »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #381
Veen wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In general there seems to be a weird zeitgeist of negative exceptionalism in the UK at the moment. Especially on Hacker News. I tend to avoid UK-based posts on here because the content is fairly predictable: the UK is going to shit and Brexit is to blame, repeated ad nauseam in the absence of any evidence that it's true. If I wanted thoughtless UK doom mongering, I'd read the Guardian or the NYT.

If you think HN is bad, you should spend 5 minutes looking at the state of the UnitedKingdom subreddit.

All of reddit leans progressive, I refuse to touch it myself.

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

#445

Post by NoboruWataya »

cudgy wrote: post #430
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…

So, do you feel that the focus of the central banks to keep interest rates low and inflation low is to protect the lower class? I would submit that what the central banks want is to benefit the main asset holders who suffer the most from erosion by inflation.

Asset holders do not suffer the most from erosion by inflation; asset holders benefit from inflation (which is a devaluation of the currency) because the price of their assets increases. It is those whose wealth is mostly in cash that suffer the most.

Keeping interest rates low keeps inflation high. Raising interest rates reduces inflation but also hurts asset prices and can potentially bankrupt some heavily indebted businesses. This is the balancing act the central banks have been trying to perform. The reality is that getting it wrong in either direction hurts the lower class: excessively high interest rates lead to high unemployment; excessively low interest rates lead to high inflation.

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

#447

Post by luckylion »

dangwhy wrote: post #373
jacquesm wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But can't they switch to lower priced foods. They could always eat cake.

whats this supposed ot mean

It's how rich Western Europeans say that the poor will revolt unless socialism. It references something some French princess allegedly said who, when told the peasants don't have bread to eat, replied that they should eat cake instead. Some claim it as a sign of the royal disconnect that lead to the French Revolution.

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

#448

Post by gorbachev »

dboreham wrote: post #76
boc wrote: post #35

Demand for food is inelastic, so it makes sense that companies are raising prices as high as possible since people still have to eat. Generally this leads to price competition from other food brands, but when single companies own dozens/hundreds of food brands it’s easy to act like a cartel and keep prices high.

Also many people don't pay attention to how much food costs, at the point of purchase. It's all things that have low numbers that add up. e.g. when asked, nobody knows the price of a pint of milk.

If you have plenty of money to spend, sure.

If you are poor and/or live paycheck to paycheck (for example due to your monthly home heating bills having gone from 400 euros to 3000 euros year over year), I can guarantee you, you pay very close attention to how much food costs.

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

#449

Post by elevenoh4 »

ROTMetro wrote: post #221
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.

Inflation, asset deflation and a financially strained middle/low class causing them to be upside down on debt = firesale on what assets they had for the top class to acquire. I believe this cycles used to be called pump and suck when directed at third world economies, get them addicted to debt then acquire their desirable assets. Crazy to see it being used now on the UK and USA middle class. We never thought the bank…

Monetary policy cycles are for insiders to use information to make more $

it's emergent out of the incentives e.g. the Cantillion effect

it wont be around forever with AGI making this so obvious

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

#450

Post by cmurf »

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…

There's a lot of national and consumer debt to inflate away so I think inflation is what's on the menu. Workers are going to bear the brunt of the fallout if they cannot or will not demand increased pay. Workers can't get sucked into the trap of employers claim they can only afford to pay more for rent, loan, and supplies costs - and not wages.
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