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Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

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Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#31
post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

> greatest economic achievements in history.

Who's achievement? This was a supply chain shock caused by COVID and war in Ukraine, then piggybacked by corporate collusion / greedflation.

Taising of interest rates achieved nothing, possibly made it worse by decreasing money supply avaliable to address supply chain bottlenecks. There is a good nimber of economists that support this viewpoint:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/02/joseph-stiglitz-thinks-furth...

We are entering an era where economic dogma is anti-physical - when there is a shortage of energy our governments hike interest rates instead of adressing root of the problem, like building power plants or improving efficiency.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

CPI adjusts prices on a per weight or per volume basis. Shrinkflation is definitely captured in the official metrics. The hidden inflation is in the service industry where it is impossible to capture whether or not your dentist gives you a toothbrush now or not. Or if you get a free smile with your Big Mac. This is what I call skimpflation but I think some people use it interchangeably with shrinkflation. Inflation i…

> CPI adjusts prices on a per weight or per volume basis

CPI also adjutsta for quality and performance - if iPad 2 is twice better than iPad 1, but costs the same, CPI will show -50%.

If asbestos was banned in buildings, CPI for construction could be negative even if prices increase.

Not the best link, but you can find more on this easilly: https://www.cultofmac.com/85778/federal-reserve-president-cr...

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#33
post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

The only time you've "seen this before" would have been in the 1970's and inflation then was much higher for much longer than we've endured in recent years.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#34
post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

I'm probably biased but in 2008 I couldn't get a job (as a junior), dropped out of college, defaulted on debt(s), and joined the military during a time of war. I watched as friends/former colleagues/neighbors lost their homes, those who didn't went through an utter spiderweb of decision making of who to send the check to. For me, personally, it's hard to compare this to 2008/9. As far as I'm aware, greedflation (what you're describing) is what happens during a recession and a soft-landing is still a recession.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#35
post #26

It's really housing that needs the fix and I dont think they have a solution to that one

There is a bill in the works right now to keep mutual funds and similar from just scooping up every house they can for rent, I imagine there are very few actions that could make more of a difference.

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Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#37
post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

[flagged]

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if there is a soft landing... the recession is penciled in for Q3 2024 currently based on yield curve inversions.

And unlike the last eight predicted recessions, this predicted recession might actually happen! On account of it still being in the future.

Yield curve inversions are not excitable attention-seeking pundits, but an emergent measure of the market as a whole. They are also not 100% accurate... but they're fairly accurate. There are also sensible reasons to believe they are indeed causally connected to some reasonable degree, so it's not throwing chicken livers and reading the future either.

It's best not to conflate actual measures being tentatively interpreted on the basis of a century of history with some guy with a camera and a YouTube channel. They're not even the same category of thing, as pondering that for a moment will show.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPI adjusts prices on a per weight or per volume basis. Shrinkflation is definitely captured in the official metrics. The hidden inflation is in the service industry where it is impossible to capture whether or not your dentist gives you a toothbrush now or not. Or if you get a free smile with your Big Mac. This is what I call skimpflation but I think some people use it interchangeably with shrinkflation. Inflation i…

> CPI adjusts prices on a per weight or per volume basis CPI also adjutsta for quality and performance - if iPad 2 is twice better than iPad 1, but costs the same, CPI will show -50%. If asbestos was banned in buildings, CPI for construction could be negative even if prices increase. Not the best link, but you can find more on this easilly: https://www.cultofmac.com/85778/federal-reserve-president-cr...

You are correct. What I was trying to drive at is that utility for many things does not really get inflated/deflated on pre-defined metrics. In your iPad example, what's the inflator coefficient to use when going from TouchID to FaceID. It's subjective.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#40
post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

> greatest economic achievements in history. Who's achievement? This was a supply chain shock caused by COVID and war in Ukraine, then piggybacked by corporate collusion / greedflation. Taising of interest rates achieved nothing, possibly made it worse by decreasing money supply avaliable to address supply chain bottlenecks. There is a good nimber of economists that support this viewpoint: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/0…

Compare the trajectory of the US to other industrialized countries.

The best charts I could find on this are from an admittedly-biased think tank, but the sources it's pulling from are well-regarded and neutral:

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-reasons-the-u-s-e...

The US also recently passed a massive investment in building out renewable energy.

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