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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

#231

Post by [deleted] »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #183
jack_h wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Just my opinion (but I did work in the defense industry from 1974 to 1998), but I just don’t believe the published ~ 800 billion defense spending numbers. A few presidents ago, the chairman of the joint chiefs publicly said that 7 trillion in military spending is unaccounted for. Also, I admit to getting much of my information from professor Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, an economist. I took an online economics class from Whart…

[deleted]

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#232

Post by churchill »

ivape wrote: post #179
Lendal wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what tariffs do though. If you have a product that competes with another that now costs more due to tariffs, you're now free to raise your prices as well, in order to maximize profit. Your product may not have a tariff, but it does have greedy shareholders that see that they can now raise their earnings because competitors suddenly aren't so competitive anymore. Try going on a shareholder earnings call. They'r…

We’re talking about a lot of domestic goods here. Why’s the BLT more expensive? It’s literally just bacon, lettuce and tomato. Scams are scams, man. This is not economics, it’s human nature. Tariffs did not make the price of your BLT go up, it’s greed.

>Tariffs did not make the price of your BLT go up, it’s greed.

What do you want to do about it, Stalin? Use the power of the state to legislate away human greed? Imprison these greedy people? Impose price controls (which have a long, storied history of not working and only leading to shortages and queues)?

We build economic policy around human nature, not otherwise. Humans will always seek to maximize profit at all costs. If you lock out foreign suppliers from competing using tariffs, local suppliers will reason that they can charge more and will rightly do so. And tariffs in one area end up affecting so many other areas in unforeseen ways. That's how tariffs on chemical fertilizer might end up affecting the price of something as mundane as bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

That's why free markets are important. They give buyers options, and sellers then have to lower their prices reasonably to be chosen/picked from that sea of options.

If you want lower prices, remove tariffs and trade restrictions.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#233

Post by marknutter »

aurareturn wrote: post #32
ivape wrote: post #21

[flagged]

It’s the tariffs. You’re assuming that everyone will raise the price and have the same goals. Some businesses will see it as an opportunity to undercut and gain market share. After all, total profit = sales margin * sales volume. You can increase your profit by increasing your volume because you kept your prices unchanged while your competitors decided to increase prices.

Tariffs don't affect products that are produced locally.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#234

Post by [deleted] »

diego_moita wrote: post #161
BartjeD wrote: post #10

And this is after they massaged the numbers, to avoid getting fired?

In the end, it won't matter. Only economists, policy makers, investors and people blabbing on the internet do care about stats. Ordinary people just look at price tags; that's all they need.

[deleted]

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#235

Post by tootie »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #24
tootie wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely very specious. Inflation is an emergent property. CPI is measured by looking at consumer prices which is pretty transparent. The underlying causes may be obscured and, in fact, we see a lot of debate on the causes but that is irrelevant to actually measuring CPI.

Well, look at the history of removing things like living necessities and increasing things that have dropped in price like TVs. Calculation of CPI is deranged by the cherry picking of what they measure.

Not really and none of the underlying data is hidden. Inflation can vary across regions and industries and durability. Things like food and energy are in a separate category because they can fluctuate very quickly based on exogenous factors (ie bird flu) outside the control of monetary policy. That doesn't mean policy makers ignore them. They scrutinize the data at every level. CPI, core CPI or PCE are just convenient indicators.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#236

Post by samfriedman »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #128
outside1234 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!"

You mean like this one?

http://emilysquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/EmilysQuo...

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#237

Post by Workaccount2 »

abtinf wrote: post #203
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

Gold. The purchasing power of Gold has been remarkably consistent over the long term. That is, if you convert the gold to dollars, how many eggs could you buy? To learn more, read up on the work of Keith Weiner of Monetary Metals, or listen to the early episodes of his podcast “The Gold Exchange”.

The problem with gold is that it's price fluctuates just like any other commodity. The practical uses of gold accounts for only ~8% of gold mined, while half is for vanity (jewelry, a luxury product) and the rest for speculation and reserves. Similar to fiat, most of the value in gold is in people believing it has value.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#238

Post by frankbreetz »

abtinf wrote: post #164
frankbreetz wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profit would fall into an entirely different category then "salaries and compensation"

Certainly. So would materials expenses and theft and insurance and so forth. But the confusion is that somehow, money not spent on “salaries and compensation” doesn’t go to people. All of it goes to people. Defense spending isn’t buying “defense”, it’s buying time and effort for people to focus on and produce defense related things. This is the root of the original post that defense spending is a jobs program.

yes, but "salaries and compensation" are people doing work, and profit gets paid to shareholders. Most people would agree that the bulk of taxpayer dollars should go to working people and not shareholders, these are two entirely different categories. All of it goes to people, is such a reduction. We could just cut a check to Elon Musk and claim "All of goes to people". It is important to establish the difference, between paying people for labor and giving people money in the form of profit.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#239

Post by jack_h »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #183
jack_h wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Just my opinion (but I did work in the defense industry from 1974 to 1998), but I just don’t believe the published ~ 800 billion defense spending numbers. A few presidents ago, the chairman of the joint chiefs publicly said that 7 trillion in military spending is unaccounted for. Also, I admit to getting much of my information from professor Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, an economist. I took an online economics class from Whart…

> A few presidents ago, the chairman of the joint chiefs publicly said that 7 trillion in military spending is unaccounted for.

You're likely referring to the fact that the pentagon can't pass an audit even though there have been requirements going back to the 90s. That's more about tracking where the money they spent is going as opposed to the total quantity of money they are spending though, i.e. the $800bn is "accurate" but some portion of it may have vanished due to bad accounting, corruption, waste, fraud, etc...

Having said that any accounting for an entity the size of the US government is non-trivial. The numbers I stated above are not the final numbers. Firstly because it's YTD but also because of the complexity in the accounting. We have decades of trend lines and a lot of public data on tax receipts, bond auctions, and the like to know that defense spending isn't drastically different than what is being reported though. If you have any analysis that concludes otherwise I would enjoy reading it.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#240

Post by Supermancho »

whimsicalism wrote: post #205
outside1234 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

wanna bet? i will take a bet that inflation will not return to normal (ie. sub 2.1) in the next report

Indeed, a gentleman's bet.
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