101–110 of 327 posts
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Governments are afraid of deflation (prices going down) because consumers can go into a holding pattern (stopping spending while waiting for prices to continue to decrease) which can cause the economy to stall out.
Prices drop and people spend less? That's silly.
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Governments are afraid of deflation (prices going down) because consumers can go into a holding pattern (stopping spending while waiting for prices to continue to decrease) which can cause the economy to stall out.
If our government was actually as "green" as they say they are, they'd aim for this because consumers would slow down consumption to only buy what they need. But they know that inflation is another form of tax, and they're too greedy to say that inflation is anything but "good".
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>IMHO vehicles are huge drivers of debt. There are almost no cars under $30k now, and the average sale price of new cars is pushing up near $50k. This is for bog standard stuff like Hondas and Fords, not luxury cars. I went on toyota.com and a base level corolla is only selling for $22,795. This includes a "Delivery, Processing & Handling" charge of $1,095. If for whatever reason you think that driving a compact car…
>> If for whatever reason you think that driving a compact car is beneath you Armchair economist-shoppers, I love them. The other day a guy told me housing in NYC was absolutely affordable. Managed to find a bedroom for rent at $2k/mo. Sure bro, let me stuff my family of four into a shared 1br apt and then have my kids share a bathroom with some random guy in the other room. Sure, i'd do this if I was desperate...but…
That's part of the problem - there are still some careers where people can "make it" and mentally say "well if you'd just done what I did, you'd be fine"
I don't think that situation is fine for anyone, and we should reinforce that. It's just not ok. People stay in abusive relationships for housing, all kinds of negative shit. Nobody should be forced to live like that.
We have the materials and the money; the system is broken.
As a parent with kids, I really don't know how folks are getting by with the prices of everything. I know folks who keep eating out, buying new vehicles, and even building new houses and I'm left scratching my head wondering how they afford all of this. I'm not saving nearly as much as I was years ago and I think my "lifestyle" has decreased post COVID (few vacations, eating out is a treat, gifts are for birthdays/ho…
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>IMHO vehicles are huge drivers of debt. There are almost no cars under $30k now, and the average sale price of new cars is pushing up near $50k. This is for bog standard stuff like Hondas and Fords, not luxury cars. I went on toyota.com and a base level corolla is only selling for $22,795. This includes a "Delivery, Processing & Handling" charge of $1,095. If for whatever reason you think that driving a compact car…
Currently trying to buy a Corolla Hybrid (base). The best out-the-door quote I got so far is $28.5k, the MSRP is $23k. So yes, you are looking at almost $30k for the most basic car.
Other brands surely have cheaper basic options, and although I might not recommend going all the way to a Stellantis/GM car, a Ford/Honda/Mazda might be available for less and still be acceptable for quality.
What I don't understand is this 2% price target. Prices could go up 10% one year, and well call it a success if next year we "tame inflation" by only having our prices go up 2%. Why can't we target to get prices back down? For those on a fixed income, this is money we lost forever. We expect (and see) some prices go down every year (mainly electronics) and it works fine. But god forbid the price of milk goes down a b…
If it’s an annuity, you can get annuities that vary based on changes to the CPI. If you put a lot of money into a fixed annuity years ago, you did not properly hedge interest rate/inflation risk.
What I don't understand is this 2% price target. Prices could go up 10% one year, and well call it a success if next year we "tame inflation" by only having our prices go up 2%. Why can't we target to get prices back down? For those on a fixed income, this is money we lost forever. We expect (and see) some prices go down every year (mainly electronics) and it works fine. But god forbid the price of milk goes down a b…
Deflation means a dollar tomorrow is always worth more than a dollar today meaning a rational person should strive to spend as little money today as possible. This eventually locks the entire economy up into a death spiral.
America should have elected Bernie Sanders.
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wages have gone up too
Not nearly as much as inflation. Groceries alone are up something like 40% in the last 2-3 years. Your and everyone else's wages have not risen that fast on the whole.
Over the last year, real wages are up [1]. They're about flat with Q1 2020.
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Deflation means a dollar tomorrow is always worth more than a dollar today meaning a rational person should strive to spend as little money today as possible. This eventually locks the entire economy up into a death spiral.
I'm curious to know if this is a real phenomenon that has been observed. Would you be able to point me in the direction of resources to learn more about this? The reason for my skepticism is that even without deflation, a dollar tomorrow is usually worth more than a dollar today, yet tons of people* don't save or invest much/any of their money, even if they're able to. * I'm speaking from the perspective of an Americ…
No, that’s deflation.
If you’re talking about investing, that’s different. The dollar is still worth less on its own. It just made extra dollars in the meantime.