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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

#121

Post by abtinf »

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…

When you make insane claims like “the US has 900 military bases close to China”, you discredit yourself and your entire body of work.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#122

Post by jahnu »

elzbardico wrote: post #93
jahnu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. The public in general can be really bad at perceiving the truth. I might take note of people's feelings to go and recheck something but I would not trust peoples feelings with stuff like this to make any sort of conclusion. Verifiable metrics…

Let's unpack this. The real, objective reality of people living their lives is not the Truth. But, instead a single index based on what is basically a bunch of arbitrary choices of a bunch of bureaucrats, subject to all kind of agendas and political/economical/social pressure, and based on an simulacrum of science that stands upon a bunch of questionable premises and unfalseable propositions is Truth. The pythagorean…

Yes, economic metrics can be reductive. E.g. believing GDP is a measure of well being is a common reductive mistake. However, the public are often wildly incorrect. I should have been more precise and said that in order to have a productive analysis and make good policy you need objective metrics and context with discussion.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#123

Post by Tesl »

jfengel wrote: post #50
isbwkisbakadqv wrote: post #4

2.8% doesn’t seem that crazy to me? Don’t we target like 2-2.5?

In November 2024, inflation was at 2.7%. Inflation for the whole year was 2.9%. The public was so incensed that they threw out the government.

We all know Trump voters didn't give two shits about the price of eggs. That's not why they vote for him.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#124

Post by jack_h »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #47
andsoitis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? Your question at the end suggests those blogs and articles didn’t include compelling evidence for the case they were making. If true, then it is worth reconsidering whet…

Good point. How do you gather information? I split my time about half each reading US news and news from other countries. There are a few people I find believable like Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and retired congressman Ron Paul (these two guys are quite different politically) and I will listen to each of them once or twice a month, just to occasionally get non-mainstream news viewpoints.

If you're truly curious I would say the best way to start is to get a basic understanding of economics and how our current system actually operates. It's also important to look up the data as it actually exists rather than consuming conclusions from commentators without investigating further.

For instance your initial post seems to imply that we aren't balancing our defense vs social spending and are spending way too much on the former. However, that doesn't align with our current outlays. If you check out the latest US Treasury report the outlays for the current fiscal year shows $1314bn for Social Security, $841bn for interest payments on the debt, $823bn for medicare, $805bn for health, and $758bn for defense. The primary driver of debt in the future will be the entitlement programs and interest.

Of course the unfortunate reality is that most people do not have the time to learn about everything and do their own research so we will always rely on others to some extent for our information. The danger is when your world view fills in the gaps of knowledge you lack combined with the facts you believe you know taken from someone else who may be mistaken, misleading, or outright lying.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#125

Post by 9rx »

gosub100 wrote: post #99
9rx wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation seeks to understand the change in value of a currency, not the change in value of a good or service. College being worth more (in the eyes of the customer), rather than the currency being worth less, is what accounts for the 10x increase. I don't know how old your mom is, but it wasn't that long ago that people only went to college if they had good reason to, not because they were told they "had to" under t…

People didn't need to go to college before the death of the middle class. A couple generations ago you could rent an apartment and have a decent life working at a restaurant or warehouse or factory. Now most entry level jobs pay poverty level wages.

People didn't need to go to college because nobody cared. Employers were able to look at qualities of the actual person, not some outside attribute bolted onto the side. What changed was Griggs vs. Duke, which outlawed effectively all filtering mechanisms except a college degree, forcing the hand of employers.

That still didn't mean the workers had to comply, though. What do you think would happen, with respect to employment, if nobody attained a college degree? Not much. "Welp, no more college graduates. I guess we'd better shut our business down." would be said by nobody. Hiring would carry on as usual (aside from the lines possibly being longer, there being no legal mechanism to cull applicants early). But colleges certainly took the opportunity to present that idea and the people bought it hook, line, and sinker.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#126

Post by giantg2 »

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…

US vs Europe inflation https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/05/art3full.pdf

"balance between true defense spending and healthy spending like feeding and educating children, infrastructure, R&D that helps society, etc."

Spending does not equal outcomes. There doesn't need to be a spending balance, but there should be an outcomes balance. We can see this with school funding. There are some schools that are underfunded and underperform, but there are also schools with adequate funding that underperform lower funded schools. The implication that you are making is that we could fix things just by cutting back military spending. However, we are also leaders in some of the areas you mention already, such as R&D. The Pentagon fails their audits frequently and should be trimmed down in areas that it makes sense. However, just shifting that money to education isn't going to make that much of an impact.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#127

Post by 4fterd4rk »

abtinf wrote: post #121
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…

When you make insane claims like “the US has 900 military bases close to China”, you discredit yourself and your entire body of work.

They didn't say that. Your reading comprehension is poor.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#128

Post by JKCalhoun »

outside1234 wrote: post #85
pm90 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think any existing numbers were officially changed, just that the head of BLS was fired.

Yes, for THAT head of the BLS. It is super clear to the next head of the BLS that they deliver the number the president likes or they will be fired. So, just like in Venezuela, that number will be delivered.

Picturing a future political cartoon of hobo-looking guys sitting around a winter fire burning in an old oil drum — one guy is holding up a newspaper (wut?) and saying to the rest, "Hey guys, it's fine because it says here that the employment numbers reported are the best ever!"

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#129

Post by abtinf »

mbfg wrote: post #106
Workaccount2 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

All spending everywhere is essentially “salaries and compensation”. It’s not like you get to the end of the supply chain and suddenly are paying God. Money always goes to people.
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