51–60 of 88 posts
The problem isn't water, it's drowning. The problem isn't obesity, it's calories. The problem isn't expenses, it's income. Inflation is literally defined as prices rises in response to increase in currency....
Basic macroeconomics: Inflation decreases, retailers begin lower prices to increase sales. There's a delay between all of this. This process happens over 1-2 years, much slower than prices going up. This does not happen in a market with monopolies however, which is why it is vital to lower the barrier of entry into markets (decreasing stupid regulations that get "exceptions" in the real world), or use FTC or other st…
PSA: whenever someone calls a concept "basic economics", don't just take their word for it.
We should prioritize basic economics and basic mathematics in education, even for people who will go on to get humanities degrees and write for Vox (about business & economics, no less).
Someone who doesn't understand how multiplication and inflation works should not be allowed anywhere near a big news publication.
"Emily Stewart covers business and economics for Vox. She has written about a wide range of topics, including Elizabeth Warren’s political roots, the motivations driving the crypto space, and what’s going on these days with the Beanie Baby market. Stewart is the author of a monthly newsletter, The Big Squeeze, that examines the ways ordinary people are being squeezed under capitalism and the scams — legal and illegal — that are constantly trying to sucker us."
The problem isn't water, it's drowning. The problem isn't obesity, it's calories. The problem isn't expenses, it's income. Inflation is literally defined as prices rises in response to increase in currency....
No it's not. When Friedman said that "inflation is always a monetary phenomenon" he was saying that inflation is caused by a mismatch of money supply and economic capacity. You fix inflation by tweaking the money supply, but the cause may have been either the supply or capacity side.
And since when did an economic theory become part of the definition? Inflation is an old word that far predates Friedman or the central currency system.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a reason corporate price gouging takes place when you see inflation narrative in the media. This is the only opportunity where people accept an increase in prices that sticks around. You raise the prices of eggs on a normal day, people will stop buying your eggs. You raise the prices of eggs when everyone is talking about inflation, people will accept it and focus on everything else.
Can you provide several strong examples of corporate price gouging showing up in public financial results (where we can see some evidence of it, instead of just empty claims)? I've yet to see any proof of it. Margins haven't skyrocketed on food products for example. Kroger still has horrible retailer margins. Prices at CVS and Walgreens have soared, their business margins are still horrible in retail. Kroger's gross…
That people do not understand very basic concepts is scary. > The root of what’s going on here can feel obvious: blame inflation, which picked up in mid-2021 and throughout 2022. But that isn’t really the issue anymore, at least not at the current rate, because inflation is coming down. The actual problem here is prices. Inflation going from 10% to 5% is "inflation is coming down" - but it means that prices are risin…
There is a reason corporate price gouging takes place when you see inflation narrative in the media. This is the only opportunity where people accept an increase in prices that sticks around. You raise the prices of eggs on a normal day, people will stop buying your eggs. You raise the prices of eggs when everyone is talking about inflation, people will accept it and focus on everything else.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In theory supply and demand should force prices back down over time, but ongoing consolidation/monopolies/backdoor price fixing (RealPage, Amazon Marketplace) kinda broke the efficient market stuff. One way this could happen is if salaries increased to match the new prices over time. The issue is that we are not seeing that happening, prices are increasing much faster than salaries, while corporate profits break re…
In any inflationary environment, corporate profits should be expected to regularly break records (in nominal terms) just like GDP should be expected to regularly break records.
That people do not understand very basic concepts is scary. > The root of what’s going on here can feel obvious: blame inflation, which picked up in mid-2021 and throughout 2022. But that isn’t really the issue anymore, at least not at the current rate, because inflation is coming down. The actual problem here is prices. Inflation going from 10% to 5% is "inflation is coming down" - but it means that prices are risin…
From my POV it feels like every near-essential good has slow but steady inflationary effect and everyone just sort of accepts it: * health care * housing * cars * food It's hard not to feel like these markets each manifest a collective behavior of, "we know we're essential, so we are free to set prices as we wish because you have no real alternatives." It benefits all the players to play along, you don't even need to…
Were you not around in the US (and many other places) in 2008-10? Prices can definitely fall.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where is the evidence?
Not OP, but where I _may_ agree with the sentiment is that inflation has a wide distribution of impact by the underlying category of goods/services. e.g. food, energy, electricity, shelter, apparel, etc. Namely, even if average / median inflation is going down, inflation is still non-zero - and even still very high - in categories that significantly impact lower-income households, urban families, farmers, etc.
The problem isn't water, it's drowning. The problem isn't obesity, it's calories. The problem isn't expenses, it's income. Inflation is literally defined as prices rises in response to increase in currency....