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US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

bloomberg.com

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Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#101

Post by dragontamer »

flanked-evergl wrote: post #54

In Norway our food prices has gone up by more than 4 in one month while we are destroying any capacity for local production while we have protectionism that would make Trump blush. How is that not newsworthy, but this is?

In the USA, food prices are non-core inflation and most volatile indeed.

Food prices go up because of random weather events (or locus or disease). USA beef prices are skyrocketing because of some new disease for example.

Anyone who says that a monthly food price change is an underlying indicator of overall inflation is simply lying to you.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#102

Post by jasonlotito »

elzbardico wrote: post #58
Havoc wrote: post #36

Are there inflation indicators that aren’t government controlled? Don’t think anything coming out of trump influenced bodies is worth the paper it’s on anymore

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Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#103

Post by rafram »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #86
infecto wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had trouble following your core point. Do you have references regarding 900 bases with many bordering China. I have never seen such figures or that they border China.

Google Gemini 2.5 Pro just estimated 200 military bases close to China (I used “close” in my prompt, not very precise, so that number is likely including bases in the general area.) Gemini estimated 750 to 800 total military bases.

This is not useful.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#105

Post by atomicnumber3 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #73
mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

Over the years I have read a few articles or blogs that make the argument that if government inflation figures in the US were calculated as they do in Europe, then our reported US inflation figures would be much higher. Can anyone here verify this? Our main problems involve under the table unreported to the public military expenditures. If you look at a map of our military bases, we have many bordering China. I think…

The defence budget is America's job program. Very little of the money that is defense spending ends up in defense shareholder pockets. The overwhemling vast majority goes to propping up America's (now) anemic industrial base. Remember that virtually all defense dollars are constrained to only be spent on American made things and services. And most of money sent to the big contractors goes to the gazillion sub-contrac…

It is also kind of handy that we get aircraft carriers out of it too.

Mind you, I'm a socialist, so like, I personally wish we could move a bunch of the "jobs program" stuff over so that instead of carriers, we get well-educated, fed, and cared-for children and good medical care for all, and stuff like that. And that if we want a certain number of aircraft carriers, we should just try to actually get that many carriers on purpose for the cost that building the carriers entails. Without also trying to do 10 million other things on top of it to the point that the carrier output is a side-effect.

But like, it's probably better than no carriers at all, which is how it's going for lots of other countries. So I guess that's something to hold on to.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#106

Post by mbfg »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #73
mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

Over the years I have read a few articles or blogs that make the argument that if government inflation figures in the US were calculated as they do in Europe, then our reported US inflation figures would be much higher. Can anyone here verify this? Our main problems involve under the table unreported to the public military expenditures. If you look at a map of our military bases, we have many bordering China. I think…

The defence budget is America's job program. Very little of the money that is defense spending ends up in defense shareholder pockets. The overwhemling vast majority goes to propping up America's (now) anemic industrial base. Remember that virtually all defense dollars are constrained to only be spent on American made things and services. And most of money sent to the big contractors goes to the gazillion sub-contrac…

I believe less than a quarter of the defense budget is for salaries and compensations.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#107

Post by lentil_soup »

elzbardico wrote: post #51

Frankly, I haven't seen a single country where I spent any significant amount of time, where official inflation numbers were not seeing as a complete joke by the common folks. And my experience usually matched it. There's plenty of space to hide reality when building a price index. Price index do not capture the reality of most people cost of living. They don't capture the family that have to buy margarine instead of…

sure, but are there any alternatives? To make data backed decisions you need to measure something, even if not perfect it gives you some sort of relative direction for the things measured. Not perfect but better than no data at all

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#108

Post by temp_praneshp »

jcranmer wrote: post #57
hiddencost wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They fired the head of the BLS because they didn't like the numbers. Explicitly. You kinda have to conclude they're going to cook the books. Like they're doing everywhere else.

Apparently, they've decided to go with "just not report the numbers." (Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trumps-bls-pick-could-p... ).

That interview was unfortunately timed (taped before nomination, broadcast afterward). My takeaway was that they are not trying "just not report the numbers" _yet_.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#109

Post by dgfitz »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #86
infecto wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had trouble following your core point. Do you have references regarding 900 bases with many bordering China. I have never seen such figures or that they border China.

Google Gemini 2.5 Pro just estimated 200 military bases close to China (I used “close” in my prompt, not very precise, so that number is likely including bases in the general area.) Gemini estimated 750 to 800 total military bases.

So no, no sources.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#110

Post by vel0city »

apical_dendrite wrote: post #91
zug_zug wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak to this, but I suspect something is afoot. I know my mom went to a university that she paid for with a part-time job while a student. Currently that university's tuition is 80,000 a year. When I looked at what inflation figures said for college education, it wasn't enough to account for that 10x+ increase.

Most US students don't go to selective private universities that charge $80,000 a year (and most students at those universities don't pay $80,000 a year). Only about a quarter of students go to private universities and most of those are not particularly selective. Most students go to state schools that are a lot cheaper and where tuition is subject to different economic forces. You can't decide that official inflatio…

Also, the list prices for tuition and what the average student actually pays out of pocket in the end can be two very different figures after grants and scholarships come into play.

And yes, absolutely, $80k a year in tuition is a massive outlier. Average in-state university tuition is closer to $12k-13k/yr, before grants and scholarships. The extreme majority of US undergraduates aren't shelling out $80k/yr for tuition payments.

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